Chapter Dalkey to Danaw of D by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Damon and Pythias Inseparable friends. They were two Syracusian youths. Damon, being condemned to death by Dionysius the tyrant, obtained leave to go home to arrange his affairs if Pythias became his security. Damon being delayed, Pythias was led to execution, but his friend arrived in time to save him. Dionysius was so struck with this honourable friendship that he pardoned both of them.

Damper (A). A snap before dinner, which damps or takes off the edge, of appetite. "That's a damper" also means a wet-blanket influence, a rebuff which damps or cools one's courage.
   Also a large thin cake of flour and water baked in hot ashes. The mute of a stringed instrument to deaden the sound is also called a "damper."

Damsel (See Domisellus. )

Damson A corruption of Damascéne, a fruit from Damascus.

Damyan (3 syl.). A "silke squyer," whose illicit love was accepted by May, the youthful bride of January, a Lombard knight, sixty years old. (Chaucer: The Marchaundes Tale.)

Dan A title of honour, common with the old poets, as Dan Phoebus, Dan Cupid, Dan Neptune, Dan Chaucer, etc. (Spanish, don.)

"Dan Chaucer, well of English undefiled,
On Fame's eternal beadroll worthy to be filed."
Spenser: Faërie Queene, book iv. canto ii. 32.

   From Dan to Beersheba. From one end of the kingdom to the other; all over the world; everywhere. The phrase is Scriptural, Dan being the most northern and Beersheba the most southern city of the Holy Land. We have a similar expression, "From John o' Groats to the Land's End."

Dan Tucker Out o' de way, old Dan Tucker. The first Governor of Bermuda was Mr. Moore, who was succeeded by Captain Daniel Tucker. These islands were colonised from Virginia.

Danace (3 syl.). A coin placed by the Greeks in the mouth of the dead to pay their passage across the ferry of the Lower World.

Danae An Argive princess whom Zeus (Jupiter) seduced under the form of a shower of gold, while she was confined in an inaccessible tower. She thus became the mother of Perseus (2 syl.).

Danaides (4 syl.). Daughters of Danaos (King of Argos). They were fifty in number, and married the fifty sons of Ægyptos. They all but one murdered their husbands on their wedding-night, and were punished in the infernal regions by having to draw water everlastingly in sieves from a deep well.
   This is an allegory. The followers of Danaos taught the Argives to dig wells, and irrigate their fields in the Egyptian manner. As the soil of Argos was very dry and porous, it was like a sieve.

   The names of the fifty Danaïdes and their respective husbands are as follows:

Actaea	wife of	Periphas.
Adianta	"	Daïphron.
Adyta	"	Menalces.
Agave	"	Lycos.
Amymone	"	Encelados.
Anaxibia	"	Archelaos.
Antodica	"	Clytos.
Asteria	"	Choetos.
Autholea	"	Cisseus.
Automata	"	Architelos.
Autonoe	"	Eurylochos.
Brycea	"	Chthonios.
Callidice	"	Pandion.
Celeno	"	Hyxobios.
Chrysippe	"	Chrysippos.
Chrysothemis	"	Asteris.
Cleodora	"	Lixos.
Cleopatra	"	Agenor.
Clio	"	Asterias.
Critomedia	"	Antipaphos.
Damone	"	Amyntor.
Dioxippe	"	Ægyptos.
Electra	"	Peristhenes.
Erato	"	Bromios.
Eupheno	"	Hyperbios.
Eurydice	"	Dryas.
Evippe	"	Imbros.
Glauca	"	Alcis.
Glaucippa	"	Potamon.
Gorga	"	Hyppothooa.
Gorgophon	"	Proteus.
Helcita	"	Cassos.
Hippodami'a	"	Ister.
Hippodica	"	Idras.
Hippomeduse	"	Alcmenon.
Hyperippa	"	Hippocoristes.
Hypermnestra	"	Lynceus.
Iphimedusa	"	Euchenor.
Mnestra	"	Egios.
Ocypete	"	Lampos.
Oime	"	Arbelos.
Pharte	"	Eurydamas.
Pilarga	"	Idmon.
Pirene	"	Agaptolemos.
Podarca	"	Œneus.
Rhoda	"	Hippolytos.
Rhodia	"	Chalcedon.
Sthenela	"	Sthenelos.
Stygna	"	Polyctor.
Theano	"	Phanthes.

    Lynceus (2 syl.), the one saved by his wife, is marked with an asterisk (*).