batrachomyomachian

English

Etymology

From Batrachomyomachia (Ancient Greek βάτραχος, frog, μῦς, mouse, and μάχη, battle), a comic epic parodying the Iliad in which a diving frog accidentally drowns a mouse riding on his back, prompting a war between the species.

Adjective

batrachomyomachian (comparative more batrachomyomachian, superlative most batrachomyomachian)

1. (rare) Petty (chiefly of a quarrel).
   • 1933, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Earl Leslie Griggs, Philip Hamilton McMillan, Unpublished Letters of Samuel Taylor Coleridge:

     ...sounded throughout to my own ears as a Batrachomyomachian battle between the croaks and the squeaks...

   • 1971, Edwin Harrison Cady, The Light of Common Day: Realism in American Fiction:

     The batrachomyomachian cure for the superhuman ego is to chop it off at the knees and cut it down to a human, preferably humane, level.

Translations

petty

• Czech: žabomyší (cs) n