holocaust
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also Holocaust
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[edit] English
[edit] Etymology
From French holocauste, from Late Latin holocaustum, from the neuter form of Ancient Greek ὁλόκαυστος, from ὅλος (holos, “whole”) + καύστος (kaustos, “burnt”) from καίω (kaiō, “I burn”)
[edit] Pronunciation
[edit] Noun
holocaust (plural holocausts)
- A sacrifice to a god that is completely burned to ashes.
- 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, Mark XII:
- And to love a mans nehbour as hymsilfe, ys a greater thynge then all holocaustes and sacrifises.
- 1646, Sir Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, III.3:
- in the holocaust or burnt-offering of Moses, the gall was cast away: for, as Ben Maimon instructeth, the inwards, whereto the gall adhereth, were taken out with the crop (according unto the law,) which the priest did not burn, but cast unto the east [...].
- 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, Mark XII:
- The annihilation or near-annihilation of a group of animals or people, whether by natural or deliberate agency (e.g., “nuclear holocaust”)
- The state-sponsored mass murder of an ethnic group. In particular (and often with an initial capital) the “Final Solution”, a euphemism used by the Nazis to describe the mass killing of Jews and others either in camps equipped with industrial gassing and crematorium equipment or by more conventional means.
[edit] Usage notes
- Use of the word holocaust to depict Jewish suffering under the Nazis dates back to 1942, according to the OED. By the 1970s, The Holocaust was often synonymous with the Jewish exterminations. This use of the term as a synonym for the Jewish exterminations has been criticised because it appears to imply that there was a voluntary religious purpose behind the Nazi actions, which was not the case whether from the perspective of the Nazis or from that of the victims. Hence, some people prefer the term Shoah, which means destruction.
- There is a debate as to whether the term should include the killings of other groups by the Nazis, especially the Roma and Sinti, who were also systematically gassed, or whether the term should refer only to the genocide of the Jews. The Romani word Porajmos is used to refer to specifically to the genocide of the Roma and Sinti.
- The word continues with its other uses. For example, part of the action of a BBC radio drama by James Follett in 1981 takes place in “Holocaust City”, which by inference was named because the inhabitants were the only survivors of a global nuclear war.
[edit] Related terms
[edit] Translations
sacrifice to a god
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annihilation of a group of animals or people
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state-sponsored mass murder of an ethnic group
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[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Paternoster, Lewis M. and Frager-Stone, Ruth. Three Dimensions of Vocabulary Growth. Second Edition. Amsco School Publications: USA. 1998.
[edit] Czech
[edit] Alternative forms
- holokaust m.
[edit] Noun
holocaust m.
- holocaust (the state-sponsored mass murder of an ethnic group)
