disembodied, wall/ Wall of Water, writing (or handwriting) on the wall

OPINION | OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR Stephen Hawking, Force of Nature By LEONARD MLODINOW His true strength was more than just his disembodied intellect.

Two rescued motorists were "absolutely horrified," after a wall of icy water trapped them and several others in suburban Washington...

Wall of Water Slams Japanese Town.


wall
(wôl) 
n.

1. An upright structure of masonry, wood, plaster, or other building material serving to enclose, divide, or protect an area, especially a vertical construction forming an inner partition or exterior siding of a building.
2. A continuous structure of masonry or other material forming a rampart and built for defensive purposes. Often used in the plural.
3. A structure of stonework, cement, or other material built to retain a flow of water.
4. 1. Something resembling a wall in appearance, function, or construction, as the exterior surface of a body organ or part: the abdominal wall.
   2. Something resembling a wall in impenetrability or strength: a wall of silence; a wall of fog.
   3. An extreme or desperate condition or position, such as defeat or ruin: driven to the wall by poverty.
5. Sports. The vertical surface of an ocean wave in surfing.

tr.v., walled, wall·ing, walls.

1. To enclose, surround, or fortify with or as if with a wall: wall up an old window. See synonyms at enclose.
2. To divide or separate with or as if with a wall. Often used with off: wall off half a room.
3. To confine or seal behind a wall; immure: "I determined to wall [the body] up in the cellar" (Edgar Allan Poe).
4. To block or close (an opening or passage, for example) with or as if with a wall.

idioms:
off the wall Slang.

1. Extremely unconventional.
2. Without foundation; ridiculous: an accusation that is really off the wall.

up the wall Slang.

1. Into a state of extreme frustration, anger, or distress: tensions that are driving me up the wall.

writing (or handwriting) on the wall

1. An ominous indication of the course of future events: saw the writing on the wall and fled the country.

[Middle English, from Old English weall, from Latin vallum, palisade, from vallus, stake.]

wallless wall'less adj.

The writing is on the wall

Meaning

Imminent danger has become apparent.

Origin

'The writing is on the wall' is also sometimes expressed as 'the handwriting is on the wall' or as 'mene mene'. The first of those variations is an obvious synonym but what does 'mene mene' mean? This is a shortening of 'mene mene tekel upharsin', which is of Aramaic origin. If your Aramaic isn't that strong you can get some guidance from the Bible, Daniel 5, in the story of Belshazzar's feast. To cut a long Old Testament story short, Belshazzar was indulging in a drunken revelry and debasing sacred temple vessels by using them as wine goblets when a disembodied hand wrote 'mene mene tekel upharsin' on the palace wall.
On the face of it, and using a literal translation, this appeared meaningless. The expression seemed to mean 'two minas, a shekel and two parts' or alternatively 'numbered, weighed, divided'. None of this meant much to Belshazzar, who decided that he needed further interpretation and sent for the Jewish exile Daniel. It then became clear that the phrase was an elaborate wordplay, relying on the fact that each word can denote a different coin, and the third word can be interpreted as 'Persia'. Daniel's interpretation, as recorded in the first easily understood English version of the Bible, the King James Version, 1611, was:

And this the writing that was written, MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN. This the interpretation of the thing:
MENE; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it.
TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.
PERES; Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.

The point of the moral tale was that Belshazzar couldn't see the warning that was apparent to others because he was engrossed with his sinning ways.
The subtlety of the biblical wordplay is now somewhat lost on those of us that don't speak ancient Aramaic. Perhaps a flavour of the style can be conveyed by comparing it to the lyrics of the popular World War II novelty song Mairzy Doats:

Mairzy doats and dozy doats and liddle lamzy diveya
A kiddley divey too, wooden shoe?

Literally, that's meaningless but a wartime Daniel could have translated it into its actual meaning:

Mares eat oats and does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy,
A kid'll eat ivy too, wouldn't you?

'Writing on the wall' began to be used figuratively, that is providing warnings where no actual writing or walls are involved, from the early 18th century; for example, Jonathan Swift's Miscellaneous works, 1720:

A baited Banker thus desponds,
From his own Hand foresees his Fall;
They have his Soul who have his Bonds;
'Tis like the Writing on the Wall.

disembodied

dɪsɪmˈbɒdɪd/

adjective

1. separated from or existing without the body.

   
   

   "a disembodied ghost"

   • (of a sound) lacking any obvious physical source.

     
     

     "a disembodied voice at the end of the phone"