Pyrrhic victories...

[ljm2002]

...are the natural result of slash-and-burn tactics.

That is all.

[Buzz Clik]

1. That is not the nature of Pyrrhic victories.

Perhaps, however, if you gave us some context, we could discuss something else.

[Igel]

2. Oh. I thought it was a pun.

Pyrrhic from a king's name, but parallel to pyrrhic derived from a word for "reddish" in Greek, based on the word pyr 'fire'.

Pyr is, of course, cognate with "fire" back to Proto-Indo-European, taking into account ablaut and Grimm's law.


So "pyrrhic victory" can be mis-construed as a victory based in some way on fire. Which is what you'd get in slash-and-burn.



On second thought, perhaps I read too much meaning into it at first glance.

Grad school, punning cheek-by-jowl with a bunch of multilingual historical and comparative linguists and Indo-Europeanists, probably left me a bit warped as far as "first glance" at anything language-related goes.

[Buzz Clik]

5. Err.... Yeah. My knowledge of etymology of words from Greek is a bit thin.

What is the nerd-equivalent in the circle of multilingual historical and comparative linguists and Indo-Europeanists?

[lpbk2713]

3. This has been a day of cryptic posts.

Must be something in the air.

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. It's a repost of their hidden post in GDP

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1251929947

with some of it removed, in the hope that it will be allowed to stay in GD, I guess.

[Buzz Clik]

6. Calling out the admins is bad form

[NutmegYankee]

7. Even in a Pyrrhic Victory, you still control the field...

And the enemy runs for their lives.

The key to not losing the war is to not do it over and over again.

[ljm2002]

8. From Wikipedia...

...here is the definition of a pyrrhic victory:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrrhic_victory

A Pyrrhic victory is a victory that inflicts such a devastating toll on the victor that it is tantamount to defeat. Someone who wins a Pyrrhic victory has been victorious in some way. However, the heavy toll negates any sense of achievement or profit. Another term for this would be "hollow victory".

In other words, by defeating the enemy in this manner, you also defeat yourself.

[NutmegYankee]

9. I was referring to the Historical Aspect.

Pyrrhus of Epirus stayed in Southern Italy too long and got into wars with both Rome AND Carthage. He was a master general but could not replace his troops whereas the Romans could.

[ljm2002]

10. Regardless of its historical derivation...

Last edited Sun Dec 20, 2015, 09:07 PM - Edit history (1)

...the term "pyrrhic victory" means what the definition I pulled up shows -- a victory that comes at too high a price, sometimes even one's own destruction along with that of one's enemy.

[NutmegYankee]

11. The definition doesn't actually match the history.

Pyrrhus lost fewer troops than the Romans in each battle - he just couldn't afford the losses as he was fighting away from home (Epirus Greece). So in the end, he couldn't sustain the war and had to leave Italy.

The actual definition of Pyrrhic victory is "winning the battle, but losing the war".