Echo.

The Romans say that Echo was a nymph in love with Narcissus, but her love not being returned, she pined away till only her voice remained. We use the word to imply similarity of sentiment: as You echo my ideas; That is an echo to my opinion.

“Sweet Echo, sweetest nymph, that liv’st unseen

Within thy airy shell,

By slow Meänder’s margent green …

Canst thou not tell me of a gentle pair

That likest thy Narcissus are?”

Milton: Comus, 230, etc.

· ·

Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.