victimary

English

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Middle French victimaire, from Latin victimārius, from victima +‎ -ārius.

Noun

victimary (plural victimaries)

1. (historical) A person whose role it is to kill the sacrificial victim(s) during a ritual sacrifice.
   • 1876, Richard Francis Burton, Etruscan Bologna: A Study, London: Smith, Elder & Co., page 43:

     Two of the ministri support a pole or brancard, from which hangs a situla (pail with handles); a third has charge of a huge ox, over whose head floats a bird like Progne; whilst a victimary drags by the horns a goat, sacred to Mars.

Etymology 2

From victim +‎ -ary.

Adjective

victimary (comparative more victimary, superlative most victimary)

1. (rare) Relating to victim(s) or victimhood.
   • 2022, Catriona McAllister, Literary Reimaginings of Argentina's Independence: History, Fiction, Politics, Liverpool, Merseyside: Liverpool University Press, page 42:

     Ansay reinserts the victim at the heart of what the violence of independence can signify: the second part of the text leaves behind the revolutionary government's processes of self-construction and represents the experience of independence exclusively from this victimary perspective.