2007-01-11 18:37:31 · 8 answers · asked by Yagami Raito 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
Hello,
it's not french, it's latin. You can translate it like "A God out of the machine". It comes from the theatre where you could have someone coming with ropes from the sky down to the scene and solving the whole situation in one move. It was a shortcut for scenarist when they were stuck n a tricky situation. The God came out and saved everybody.
You can still use it nowadays when you feel that the situation ended happily while it was almost impossible 2 minutes before. Like when in a movie everything is desperate and all of a suden, someone arrives and all the heroes are saved. ^^ This person would be called the Deus ex Machina.
Another situation is a like in a roleplaying game when the GM decides to solve a situation when he feels the players are stuck and about to be killed. He brings an external element out of the blue.
2007-01-11 18:49:30 · answer #1 · answered by Guzz 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
The first 2 people who answered your question are of course right. It is Latin and means "A God out of a Machine". However, they did not explain the figurative meaning.
The phrase is used to refer to a method in a book or a story, where the writer/narrator invents some improbable plot at the last minute to rescue his hero from a hopeless situation. And "deus ex machina" solutions are generally frowned upon in literature.
2007-01-12 02:50:25 · answer #2 · answered by Dennis J 4 · 2⤊ 1⤋
God of from the machine. It's Latin. It refers to theatrical performances (typically Greek and Roman) like the Odyssey where a god or other super human being descends and basically tells everyone to stop fighting/ arguing and then the play ends. the machine part comes in because when these plays were preformed the person playing the god was lowered by a mechanical device.
2007-01-12 02:48:41 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
God from the machine
It describes the use of a suddenly introduced device or character (such as a God) to resolve a seemingly impossible situation.
2007-01-12 02:41:48 · answer #4 · answered by Ape Ape Man 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
It's Latin - a device used in a plot to explain something introduced - God in machine, I think.
2007-01-12 08:44:41 · answer #5 · answered by Lydia 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
God from the machine. It means that it is a covering form of everything. It is a blanket reason. For instance, if you believe in a god, you will see that god keeps us alive. So he acts a machine that enables your existence.
2007-01-12 04:00:48 · answer #6 · answered by Qyn 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's Latin, and it means "God from the Machine"
2007-01-12 02:44:25 · answer #7 · answered by xidaranthed 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It's a Latin expression
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deus_ex_machina
2007-01-12 03:27:08 · answer #8 · answered by Nathalie D 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋