Coriolanus, Gnaeus Marcius: Legendary Roman hero; conqueror of Volscian Corioli; exiled for anti-democratic views; led Volscian army against Rome; pacified through intercession of his mother. Title and hero of Shakespearean play. [source: Routlege’s Universal Encyclopaedia]
Coriolis effect: n. a hypothetical force used to explain rotating systems, such that the movement of air or water over the surface of the rotating earth is directed clockwise in the northern hemisphere and anticlockwise in the southern hemisphere. [G. G. Coriolis, French scientist, d. 1843] [source: Wordfinder, Sara Tulloch, ed., Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1993]
Coriolanus effect: n. the act of going around in ever decreasing circles until one vanishes up one’s own backside. [Glaswegian expression]
There’s a great example of the Coriolanus effect in this article in The Economist magazine regarding Protectionism:
The battle of Smoot-Hawley (Dec 18th 2008, from The Economist print edition) A cautionary tale about how a protectionist measure opposed by all right-thinking people was passed
Library of Congress
Hawley and Smoot, the bogeymen of trade
The article depicts what happened to world trade between 1929-33 as trade tariffs were being manipulated, the Coriolanus effect in action:
