Marathon, Silhouette and Boycott -- Dharmendra Sheth,  Spoken English in Surat
Channel: Fluentlingua
Date: 2019-09-28

1. marathon: a running race of slightly over 26 miles (42.195 kilometres):
an ancient Greek village where Athenians defeated Persians. A messenger ran 22 miles to reach Athens and give the news of the victory. But when he arrived, he was so tired that he died after giving the news. Subsequently, in Olympic games we have a running race of slightly over 26 miles.
In English, we use the word marathon for some task that demands a lot of effort, energy, patience and determination.

2. silhouette: a dark shape seen against a light surface: a silhouette of a tree
Etienne Silhouette was Controller General of France for a brief period. He was tight-fisted. He was very unpopular because of his economic policies. People started calling “silhouette” any dark picture against a light background. In fact, he himself made such pictures, mainly shadow portraits, and tried to popularize them because they were cheap. 

3. Boycott: to refuse to buy something, use something, or take part in something as a way of protesting
Captain Charles Boycott was a land agent in Ireland. In 1880, after a period of bad harvest, he reduced his tenants’ rents by 10 percent. But his tenants expected 25 percent. He refused that. So people boycotted him. Shopkeepers didn’t sell him anything. People cut off all relations with him. He had to leave Ireland and go to England.