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zombola
04-20-2015, 11:44 AM
\ puh-LEY-dee-uhm \ , noun;
1.
Anything believed to provide protection or safety; safeguard.

2.
A statue of Athena, especially one on the citadel of Troy on which the safety of the city was supposed to depend.

3.
A rare metallic element of the platinum group, silver-white, ductile and malleable, harder and fusing more readily than platinum; used chiefly as a catalyst and in dental and other alloys. Symbol: Pd; atomic weight: 106.4; atomic number: 46; specific gravity: 12 at 20°C.



Quotes:
Trial by jury is the palladium of our liberties.
-- Mark Twain, Roughing It

So, representative institutions are the talismanic palladium of the nation, are they? The palladium of the classes that have them, I daresay.
-- Charles Kingsley, Alton Locke: Novels, Poems and Letters of Charles Kingsley



Origin:
Palladium is related to the Greek word pallas meaning "little maiden." The sense of a protective talisman comes from the name of a statue of Athena that guarded the city of Troy.