# marathon
## English
### Etymology

From French marathon, coined in 1894 by linguist Michel Bréal for the first modern time Olympic Games after Ancient 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: /ˈmæɹəθən/
* (US) IPA: /ˈmæɹəˌθɑn/, /ˈmɛɹəˌθɑn/
* (General Australian) IPA: /ˈmæɹə(ˌ)θɔn/
* (New Zealand) IPA: /ˈmɛɹə(ˌ)θɔn/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)
* Hyphenation: mar‧a‧thon

### Noun

marathon (plural marathons)
* A 42.195-kilometre (26-mile-385-yard) road race.
* (figuratively, by extension) Any extended or sustained activity.
    He had a cleaning marathon the night before his girlfriend came over.
** 2021, Lisa Miller, The Awakened Brain, Ch.2, at p.35:
    I learned from the marathon that to finish a race you simply keep running.
** 2023 June 10, Patricia Murphy, “OPINION: ‘Atlanta way’ long gone as city leaders face death threats over training center”, in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution:After a marathon session that included more than 14 hours of mostly negative public comment, the council agreed 11 to 4 to fund the center, and then gaveled out just before 6 a.m.

#### Derived terms

* -athon
* marathoner
* half marathon
* ultramarathon
* walking marathon

#### Descendants

* → Bengali: ম্যারাথন (mêrathon)
* → Chinese: 馬拉松 / 马拉松 (mǎlāsōng)
** → Zhuang: majlahsungh
    Mandarin: 馬拉松 / 马拉松 (mǎlāsōng), 马拉松 (mǎlāsōng)
* → Gujarati: મેરેથોન (merethon)
* → Hindi: मैराथन (mairāthan)
* → Japanese: マラソン (marason)
** → Hakka: 馬拉松 / 马拉松 (mà-la-sóng)
* → Korean: 마라톤 (maraton)
* → Swahili: marathoni

#### Translations
### Verb

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

### References

* ↑ "Μαραθών". A Greek-English Lexicon. 1940. Henry George Liddell and Robert Scott. 12 September 2013, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:entry=*maraqw/n.

## Dutch
### Pronunciation

* Audio:(file)

### Noun

marathon m (plural marathons, diminutive marathonnetje n)
* (sports) marathon

#### Derived terms

* marathonloper

#### Descendants

* → Papiamentu: máratòn

## French
### Etymology

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek Μαραθών (Marathṓn).

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ma.ʁa.tɔ̃/
* Audio:(file)

### Noun

marathon m (plural marathons)
* marathon

#### Derived terms

* marathonien

#### Descendants

* → Arabic: مَارَاثُون (mārāṯūn)
* → Czech: maraton, maratón, marathon
* → Danish: maraton, marathon (nonstandard)
* → Dutch: marathon
** → Papiamentu: máratòn
* → English: marathon
** → Bengali: ম্যারাথন (mêrathon)
** → Chinese: 馬拉松 / 马拉松 (mǎlāsōng)
*** → Zhuang: majlahsungh
    Mandarin: 馬拉松 / 马拉松 (mǎlāsōng), 马拉松 (mǎlāsōng)
** → Gujarati: મેરેથોન (merethon)
** → Hindi: मैराथन (mairāthan)
** → Japanese: マラソン (marason)
*** → Hakka: 馬拉松 / 马拉松 (mà-la-sóng)
** → Korean: 마라톤 (maraton)
** → Swahili: marathoni
* → Finnish: maraton
* → German: Marathon
* → Greek: μαραθώνιος (marathónios) (calque)
* → Hebrew: מָרָתוֹן (maraton)
* → Hungarian: maraton
* → Latvian: maratons
* → Lithuanian: maratonas
* → Norwegian Bokmål: maraton
* → Polish: maraton
* → Romanian: maraton
* → Serbo-Croatian: mȁratōn
* → Swedish: maraton
* → Turkish: maraton
* → Vietnamese: ma-ra-tông

### Further reading

* “marathon”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.