Pyrrhic

When:

Lookups spiked on January 3, 2013.

Photo: Wikimedia

Why:

The influential economist Nouriel Roubini called the last-minute fiscal cliff agreement "a Pyrrhic victory for Mr. Obama." Roubini believes that the deal is only a temporary solution to the debt crisis.

Pyrrhic means "achieved at excessive cost" or "costly to the point of negating or outweighing expected benefits."

It comes from Pyrrhus, the name of a king of part of ancient Greece who won a battle against the Romans in 279 B.C., but only after sustaining heavy losses. After the battle, supposedly, he declared, "One more such victory and we are lost."