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  • Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Word Origins 35. Th word origin today is

  • clue. Okay. Let's take a look at the note. First well , let's say what a clue is. A

  • clue is something that helps one to solve a problem. Of course you know, like

  • a lot of detectives use clues or mystery or find an answer to something. Okay.

  • Let's continue. The origin of the word clue comes directly from Greek mythology.

  • Some Greek mythology story. In Greek mythology there was a half man and half

  • bull creature called a minotaur. Yeah. you've probably seen pictures of this

  • before. The creature was kept and limited to a labyrinth. A labyrinth is like a maze.

  • I think King Minos had the maze , so that he would actually stay in there. In Crete

  • the island of Crete , you know, of course in Greece, the Minotaur was fed right an

  • annual tribute of seven female virgins and seven young men. So I guess 14 people

  • every year had to be sacrificed for this minotaur. Basically. Okay Good.

  • Theseus , well Theseus this ended up being like the lover of Ariadne or Ariadne

  • I don't know, if I'm pronouncing that right. It's the daughter of King

  • Minos. Thesis was determined to ... he was determined to kill the Minotaur with the

  • help of Ariadne. King Minos , King Minos' daughter. He entered the labyrinth or you

  • know the type of maze you know, a maze like what we always see in these

  • laboratories that you know the mice try to figure out how to find the cheese. You

  • know, like a maze. So like a labyrinth to kill Minotaur, but in order to find

  • his way out, he used a clew. Okay. A ball of yarn. So at that time a clue. CLE W.

  • Not the way we spell it today , was actually a ball of yarn

  • in which he unraveled . In order to find his way out. Because of course, a

  • maze even if he kills ,,, even if he finds the minotaur and killed him, his way out he might

  • get trapped in there. He might get lost in there.

  • He may never find his way out. So this was the clue he used he used the yarn.

  • He just unrolled it the whole way, until he got in to where he could find the

  • minotaur and then kill him. But of course after he killed him then he could

  • just follow his path out. He could just follow the yarn that he unrolled. So

  • hopefully he took a lot of yarn with him of course,

  • so the minotaur, but in order to find his way out, he took a clew, a ball

  • of yarn in which he unraveled in order to find his way out . Clue , CLEW

  • eventually formed into our modern word for clue. CLUE. Okay. So anyway, I hope

  • you got it. I hope it was informative. I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you for your time.

  • Bye bye.

Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Word Origins 35. Th word origin today is

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