thread [OE] A Germanic word distantly related to *throw. The expression hang by a thread goes back to the 16th century, and comes from the legend of Damocles. He was a flattering courtier of Dionysius I, ruler of Syracuse in Sicily in the 4th century bc, who constantly told his ruler that he must be the happiest of men. Eventually the king decided to give Damocles a graphic demonstration of how fragile his happiness was. Dionysius invited him to a sumptuous banquet, but then Damocles realized he had been seated under a sword suspended by a single hair right above his head. The legend has also given us the expression a sword of Damocles for an imminent danger or ever-present threat.