martyr
English
Etymology
From Middle English martir, from Old English martyr, itself a borrowing from Ecclesiastical Latin martyr, from Ancient Greek μάρτυρ (mártur), later form of μάρτυς (mártus, “witness”).
Pronunciation
- (General Australian) IPA(key): /ˈmɐːtə(ɹ)/, [ˈmɐːtə(ɹ)], [ˈmɐːɾə(ɹ)]
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈmɑːtə(ɹ)/[1]
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈmɑɹ.tɚ/, [ˈmɑɹ.ɾɚ][1]
- Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)tə(ɹ)
Audio (US): (file) Audio (UK): (file) - Hyphenation: mar‧tyr
Noun
martyr (plural martyrs)
- One who willingly accepts being put to death for adhering openly to one's religious beliefs; notably, saints canonized after martyrdom.
- Saint Stephen was the first Christian martyr.
- (by extension) One who sacrifices their life, station, or something of great personal value, for the sake of principle or to sustain a cause.
- (with a prepositional phrase of cause) One who suffers greatly and/or constantly, even involuntarily.
- Stan is a martyr to arthritis, Chris a martyr to Stan's endless moaning about it.
- 1937, AJ Cronin, The Citadel:
- He'd been a martyr to asthma all his life.
- 1982, J. G. Thirlwell (lyrics and music), “J.Q. Murder”, in Ache, performed by You've Got Foetus on Your Breath:
- J.Q. Murder wears sandpaper suits
Broken glass in pocket, barbed wire boots
Not because he's mean, but because he's a martyr
He makes Jackie Collins look like Jean-Paul Sartre
Antonyms
Hyponyms
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
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Verb
martyr (third-person singular simple present martyrs, present participle martyring, simple past and past participle martyred)
- (transitive) To make someone into a martyr by putting them to death for adhering to, or acting in accordance with, some belief, especially religious; to sacrifice on account of faith or profession.
- (transitive) To persecute.
- Some religious and other minorities were martyred until extinction.
- (transitive) To torment; to torture.
- c. 1588–1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii]:
- Hark, wretches, how I mean to martyr you.
This one hand yet is left to cut your throats,
Whiles that Lavinia ’tween her stumps doth hold
The basin that receives your guilty blood.
- 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IIII, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], part II (books IV–VI), London: […] [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC, stanza 2, page 94:
- […] The louely Amoret, whoſe gentle hart
Thou martyreſt with ſorow and with ſmart, […]
Synonyms
Derived terms
Translations
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References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 “martyr”, in OED Online , Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
Danish
Etymology
From Old Danish martir. Borrowed via Ecclesiastical Latin martyr from Ancient Greek μάρτυς (mártus, “witness”).
Pronunciation
Noun
martyr c (singular definite martyren, plural indefinite martyrer)
Declension
common gender |
Singular | Plural | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
indefinite | definite | indefinite | definite | |
nominative | martyr | martyren | martyrer | martyrerne |
genitive | martyrs | martyrens | martyrers | martyrernes |
References
- “martyr” in Den Danske Ordbog
French
Etymology
Inherited from Old French martire, borrowed from Ecclesiastical Latin martyr, from Ancient Greek μάρτυρ (mártur), later form of μάρτυς (mártus, “witness”).
Pronunciation
Noun
martyr m (plural martyrs, feminine martyre)
Related terms
Further reading
- “martyr”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Latin
Etymology
From Ancient Greek μάρτυρ (mártur), later form of μάρτυς (mártus, “witness”).
Pronunciation
- (Classical Latin) IPA(key): /ˈmar.tyr/, [ˈmärt̪ʏr]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /ˈmar.tir/, [ˈmärt̪ir]
Noun
martyr m or f (genitive martyris); third declension
- (Ecclesiastical Latin) martyr, especially a Christian martyr
Declension
Third-declension noun.
singular | plural | |
---|---|---|
nominative | martyr | martyrēs |
genitive | martyris | martyrum |
dative | martyrī | martyribus |
accusative | martyrem | martyrēs |
ablative | martyre | martyribus |
vocative | martyr | martyrēs |
Related terms
Descendants
- → Proto-Brythonic: *merθɨr (see there for further descendants)
- → Danish: martyr
- → Dutch: martelaar
- → Estonian: märter
- → Finnish: marttyyri
- → Old French: martire
- → German: Märtyrer
- → Hungarian: mártír
- → Old Irish: martar
- Old Italian: martore
- → Italian: martire
- Lombard: màrtul
- Neapolitan: marture
- → Norwegian: martyr
- → Old Occitan:
- → Old Galician-Portuguese:
- Romanian: martor
- Sardinian: màrturu
- Sicilian: màrtiri
- → Scottish Gaelic: martair
- → Spanish: mártir
- → Tagalog: martir
- → Swedish: martyr
References
- “martyr”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- martyr in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
Norman
Etymology
From Ecclesiastical Latin martyr, from Ancient Greek μάρτυρ (mártur), later form of μάρτυς (mártus, “witness”).
Noun
martyr m (plural martyrs)
Norwegian Bokmål
Etymology
Borrowed from Ecclesiastical Latin martyr, from Ancient Greek μάρτυρ (mártur), later form of μάρτυς (mártus, “witness”).
Noun
martyr m (definite singular martyren, indefinite plural martyrer, definite plural martyrene)
Related terms
References
- “martyr” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
Norwegian Nynorsk
Etymology
Borrowed from Ecclesiastical Latin martyr, from Ancient Greek μάρτυρ (mártur), later form of μάρτυς (mártus, “witness”).
Noun
martyr m (definite singular martyren, indefinite plural martyrar, definite plural martyrane)
Related terms
References
- “martyr” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.
Old English
Alternative forms
Etymology
Borrowed from Ecclesiastical Latin martyr, from Ancient Greek μάρτυρ (mártur), later form of μάρτυς (mártus, “witness”).
Noun
martyr m
- martyr
- late 10th century, Ælfric, Lives of Saints
- Þā sē hālga martyr mid þām Hālgan Gāst āfylled smearcode mid mūþe and tō þām mānfullan cwæþ "Ūs ġedafenaþ tō offriġenne þām undēadlīċum gode."
- Then the holy martyr, filled with the Holy Spirit, smiled with his mouth and to the evil man said "It benefits us to sacrifice to the immortal God."
- late 10th century, Ælfric, Lives of Saints
Declension
Derived terms
References
- Joseph Bosworth and T. Northcote Toller (1898) “martyr”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary[1], 2nd edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Swedish
Etymology
Borrowed from Ecclesiastical Latin martyr, from Ancient Greek μάρτυρ (mártur), later form of μάρτυς (mártus, “witness”).
Pronunciation
- Rhymes: -yːr
Noun
martyr c
Declension
Related terms
Further reading
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms derived from Ecclesiastical Latin
- English terms derived from Ancient Greek
- English 2-syllable words
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- Rhymes:English/ɑː(ɹ)tə(ɹ)
- Rhymes:English/ɑː(ɹ)tə(ɹ)/2 syllables
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- English lemmas
- English nouns
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- English verbs
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- Danish terms inherited from Old Danish
- Danish terms derived from Old Danish
- Danish terms borrowed from Ecclesiastical Latin
- Danish terms derived from Ecclesiastical Latin
- Danish terms derived from Ancient Greek
- Danish terms with IPA pronunciation
- Danish lemmas
- Danish nouns
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- French terms inherited from Old French
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- French terms borrowed from Ecclesiastical Latin
- French terms derived from Ecclesiastical Latin
- French terms derived from Ancient Greek
- French 2-syllable words
- French terms with IPA pronunciation
- French terms with audio pronunciation
- French lemmas
- French nouns
- French countable nouns
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- Latin terms derived from Ancient Greek
- Latin 2-syllable words
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- Norman terms derived from Ecclesiastical Latin
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- nrf:Religion
- Norwegian Bokmål terms borrowed from Ecclesiastical Latin
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- Old English terms borrowed from Ecclesiastical Latin
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- Old English lemmas
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- ang:Religion
- Swedish terms borrowed from Ecclesiastical Latin
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- Rhymes:Swedish/yːr
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- Swedish lemmas
- Swedish nouns
- Swedish common-gender nouns