martyr
English edit
Etymology edit
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 edit
- (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 edit
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.
Antonyms edit
Hyponyms edit
Derived terms edit
Related terms edit
Translations edit
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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 edit
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 edit
Derived terms edit
Translations edit
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References edit
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 “martyr”, in OED Online , Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
Danish edit
Etymology edit
From Old Danish martir. Borrowed via Ecclesiastical Latin martyr from Ancient Greek μάρτυς (mártus, “witness”).
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
martyr c (singular definite martyren, plural indefinite martyrer)
Declension edit
common gender |
Singular | Plural | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
indefinite | definite | indefinite | definite | |
nominative | martyr | martyren | martyrer | martyrerne |
genitive | martyrs | martyrens | martyrers | martyrernes |
References edit
- “martyr” in Den Danske Ordbog
French edit
Etymology edit
Inherited from Old French martire, borrowed from Ecclesiastical Latin martyr, from Ancient Greek μάρτυρ (mártur), later form of μάρτυς (mártus, “witness”).
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
martyr m (plural martyrs, feminine martyre)
Related terms edit
Further reading edit
- “martyr”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Latin edit
Etymology edit
From Ancient Greek μάρτυρ (mártur), later form of μάρτυς (mártus, “witness”).
Pronunciation edit
- (Classical) IPA(key): /ˈmar.tyr/, [ˈmärt̪ʏr]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /ˈmar.tir/, [ˈmärt̪ir]
Noun edit
martyr m or f (genitive martyris); third declension
- (Ecclesiastical Latin) martyr, especially a Christian martyr
Declension edit
Third-declension noun.
Case | Singular | Plural |
---|---|---|
Nominative | martyr | martyrēs |
Genitive | martyris | martyrum |
Dative | martyrī | martyribus |
Accusative | martyrem | martyrēs |
Ablative | martyre | martyribus |
Vocative | martyr | martyrēs |
Related terms edit
Descendants edit
- → 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 edit
- “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 edit
Etymology edit
From Ecclesiastical Latin martyr, from Ancient Greek μάρτυρ (mártur), later form of μάρτυς (mártus, “witness”).
Noun edit
martyr m (plural martyrs)
Norwegian Bokmål edit
Etymology edit
Borrowed from Ecclesiastical Latin martyr, from Ancient Greek μάρτυρ (mártur), later form of μάρτυς (mártus, “witness”).
Noun edit
martyr m (definite singular martyren, indefinite plural martyrer, definite plural martyrene)
Related terms edit
References edit
- “martyr” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
Norwegian Nynorsk edit
Etymology edit
Borrowed from Ecclesiastical Latin martyr, from Ancient Greek μάρτυρ (mártur), later form of μάρτυς (mártus, “witness”).
Noun edit
martyr m (definite singular martyren, indefinite plural martyrar, definite plural martyrane)
Related terms edit
References edit
- “martyr” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.
Old English edit
Alternative forms edit
Etymology edit
Borrowed from Ecclesiastical Latin martyr, from Ancient Greek μάρτυρ (mártur), later form of μάρτυς (mártus, “witness”).
Noun edit
martyr m
Declension edit
Derived terms edit
References edit
- Joseph Bosworth and T. Northcote Toller (1898), “martyr”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Swedish edit
Etymology edit
Borrowed from Ecclesiastical Latin martyr, from Ancient Greek μάρτυρ (mártur), later form of μάρτυς (mártus, “witness”).
Pronunciation edit
- Rhymes: -yːr
Noun edit
martyr c
Declension edit
Declension of martyr | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Singular | Plural | |||
Indefinite | Definite | Indefinite | Definite | |
Nominative | martyr | martyren | martyrer | martyrerna |
Genitive | martyrs | martyrens | martyrers | martyrernas |