marathon

See also: Marathon

English

Etymology

French marathon, coined in 1894 by linguist Michel Bréal for the first modern time Olympic Games after Greek Μαραθών (Marathṓn), a town northeast of Athens. Phidippides the Greek ran the distance from Marathon to Athens to deliver a message regarding the Battle of Marathon. The modern sport of marathon running is based on a run approximately the same distance. The toponym itself comes from μάραθον (márathon, “fennel”) and refers to the prevalence of the plant in the area.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈmæɹəθən/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈmæɹəˌθɑn/, /ˈmɛɹəˌθɑn/
• Hyphenation: mar‧a‧thon

Noun

marathon (plural marathons)

1. A 42.195 kilometre (26 mile 385 yard) road race.
2. (figuratively, by extension) Any extended or sustained activity.

   He had a cleaning marathon the night before his girlfriend came over.

Derived terms

• marathoner
• half marathon
• ultramarathon

Translations

road race

• Arabic: مَارَاثُون‏‎ m (mārāṯūn)
• Bulgarian: маратон m (maraton)
• Catalan: marató (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 馬拉松 (zh), 马拉松 (zh) (mǎlāsōng)

• Czech: maraton (cs) m
• Danish: maraton n, c, maratonløb n
• Dutch: marathon (nl) m
• Esperanto: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: maraton (fi)
• French: marathon (fr) m
• German: Marathon (de) m
• Greek: μαραθώνιος (el) m (marathónios)
• Gujarati: મેરેથોન (merethon)
• Hausa: dogon gudu
• Hebrew: מרתון‏‎ (he) m (maraton)
• Hungarian: maraton (hu)

• Icelandic: maraþonhlaup (is) n, maraþon (is) n
• Interlingua: Marathon
• Italian: maratona (it) f
• Japanese: マラソン (ja) (marason)
• Korean: 마라톤 (ko) (maraton)
• Latin: Marathon
• Maltese: maratona f
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: maraton n, maratonløp n

• Polish: maraton (pl) m
• Portuguese: maratona (pt) f
• Romanian: maraton (ro)
• Russian: марафо́н (ru) m (marafón)
• Spanish: maratón (es) m f
• Swedish: maraton (sv) n, maratonlopp (sv) n
• Turkish: maraton (tr)
• Vietnamese: ma-ra-tông (vi)

any extended or sustained activity

• Catalan: marató (ca) f
• Finnish: maraton (fi)
• French: marathon (fr) m
• German: Marathon (de) m
• Greek: μαραθώνιος (el) m (marathónios)

• Hungarian: maraton (hu)
• Romanian: maraton (ro)
• Russian: марафо́н (ru) m (marafón)
• Spanish: maratón (es) m f

Verb

marathon (third-person singular simple present marathons, present participle marathoning, simple past and past participle marathoned)

1. To run a marathon.
   • 2015 August 1, “‘I was cross that my child had to beg the prime minister for a drug’”, in The Guardian^[1]:

     In less than two years, they and their family and friends have skydived, marathoned, tray-baked and dinner-danced their way to £130,000 for Duchenne research through their help4harry campaign.

2. (informal, transitive) To watch or read a large number of instalments of (a film, book, TV series, etc.) in one sitting.

   We're going to marathon Star Trek next weekend.

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Dutch

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

marathon m (plural marathons, diminutive marathonnetje n)

1. marathon

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French

Etymology

From Ancient Greek Μαραθών (Marathṓn)

Noun

marathon m (plural marathons)

1. marathon

Derived terms

• marathonien

Further reading

• “marathon” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).