holocaust
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈhɒl.ə(ʊ)ˌkɔːst/
ipa: /ˈhɑl.əˌkɔst/
ipa: /ˈhoʊ.lə-/
ipa: /ˈhɑl.əˌkɑst/
ipa: /ˈhoʊ.lə-/
Forms: form: holocausts
Etymology: The noun is derived from Middle English holocaust (“burnt offering”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman holocauste, Old French holocauste, olocauste (modern French holocaust), from Late Latin holocaustum, from Ancient Greek ὁλόκαυστον (holókauston), the neuter form of ὁλόκαυστος (holókaustos, “wholly burnt”), from ὅλος (hólos, “entire, whole”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *solh₂- (“whole”)) + καυστός (kaustós, “burnt”) (from καίω (kaíō, “to burn, burn up”); further etymology uncertain, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *keh₂w-).
The verb is derived from the noun. As regards verb sense 3 (“to subject (a group of people) to a holocaust”), compare the use of genocide as a verb.
Senses: examples: text: And the ſcribe ſayde vnto hym: well maſter⸝ thou haſt ſayde the trugthe⸝ thatt there ys one God⸝ and that there is none but he. And to love hym with all the herte⸝ and with all the mynde⸝ and with all the ſoule⸝ ãd with all the ſtrẽgthe. And to love a mans nehbour as hym ſilfe⸝ ys a greater thynge then all holocauſtꝭ [holocaustes] and ſacrifiſes.
ref: 1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, The Gospell off S. Marke xij:[32–33], folio lxiij, verso:
text: […] Iſaac carried on his back the wood for the ſacrifice; which being an holocauſt or burnt offering to be conſumed unto aſhes, we cannot well conceive the wood a burthen for a boy; but ſuch a one unto Iſaac, as that which it typified was unto Chriſt, that is the wood or croſſe whereon he ſuffered; […]
ref: 1650, Thomas Browne, “Of the Picture of Abraham Sacrificing Isaac”, in Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC, 5th book, page 208:
text: In the firſt part whereof [i.e., of the inner court of the Temple of God mentioned in Revelation 11:1] is the Temple, which conſiſts of the Sanctum, and Sanctum Sanctorum, and in the latter part thereof ſtands the Altar of Holocauſts, which whole ſpace therefore is Thyſiaſterion, or the place of ſacrificing, and was not to be rendred Altar, but the place where the Altar ſtands.
ref: 1680, Henry More, chapter XI, in Apocalypsis Apocalypseos; or The Revelation of St John the Divine Unveiled. […], London: […] J. M. for J[ohn] Martyn, and W. Kettilby, […], →OCLC, page 101:
topics: lifestyle
religion
hypernyms: burnt offering
coordinate_terms: moirocaust
glosses: An offering or sacrifice to a deity that is completely burned to ashes.
examples: text: Inſnar'd ſhe was in Shechems Treachery, / And, ſilly Mayden, ſuddenly became / An Holocauſt to Luſts unhappy Flame.
ref: 1648, Joseph Beaumont, “Canto XVII. The Mortification. Stanza 100.”, in Psyche: Or Loves Mysterie, […], London: […] John Dawson for George Boddington, […], →OCLC, page 322, column 2:
text: Oh! and with what a noble freeness on the contrary will not that good soldier, the worthy Spaniard present himself, who, wreathed with laurels, shall run after triumph to the altar of his august mother (his country), and offer up to her in holocaust, the arms and the banners of the vanquished foe; or else testify his bravery by his blood, and body all over glorious sears.
ref: 1808 August 6, “Spain. Proclamation to the Spanish warriors.”, in The Morning Chronicle, number 12,240, London: […] John Lambert […], →OCLC, page 2, column 3:
text: Is it because the Grand Seignior [of Turkey] does not recognise the religion of Christ, or because himself and his predecessors have so long enjoyed the privilege of shedding Christian blood at their pleasure? […] Surely the memorable facts of our [Greek] forefathers having created the arts and sciences, and propagated Christianity, furnish no good reason why their descendants should be offered up as holocausts to modern legitimacy!
ref: 1821 August 8, The Morning Chronicle, number 16,319, London: […] D[avid] Robertson, […], →OCLC, page 2, column 3:
topics: lifestyle
religion
synonyms: hecatomb
glosses: A complete or large offering or sacrifice.
examples: text: So vertue giv'n for loſt, / Depreſt, and overthrown, as ſeem'd, / Like that ſelf-begott'n bird [the phoenix] / In the Arabian woods emboſt, / That no ſecond knows nor third, / And lay e're while a Holocauſt, / From out her aſhie womb now teem'd, / Revives, reflouriſhes, then vigorous moſt / When moſt unactive deem'd, / And though her body die, her fame ſurvives, / A ſecular bird ages of lives.
ref: 1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, […].”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, page 98, lines 698–708:
text: A horrible holocaust occurred near Hollow Rock, in Benton County, about 7 o'clock last night. The residence of William F. Flowers was consumed by fire.
ref: 1889 March 16, “All cremated alive: Horrible holocaust near Hollow Rock, Tenn.”, in The Daily American, volume XIV, number 4,571, Nashville, Tenn.: American Co., →OCLC, page 1, column 1:
text: The hut was a holocaust; men fighting their way out howled and coughed on smoke.
ref: 1966, James Workman, The Mad Emperor, Sydney, N.S.W.: Scripts, →OCLC, page 151:
glosses: Complete destruction by fire; also, the thing so destroyed.
examples: text: a nuclear holocaust
text: Three hundred and twelve lives have been sacrificed in seven holocausts, which it would not be accurate to denominate "accidents," in the Lancashire coal fields, since November, 1868. […] [P]ractices are permitted to prevail in one coal-field which cannot be sanctioned by science, and are not be justified except in one sense, that the comfort of the whole people in the distribution of fuel, and the distribution of wages through manufactures, condone the calamity of the holocaust of three hundred and twelve lives. We refuse to believe that the British people will accept any such condonation for the slaughter of three hundred and odd of their fellow-countrymen.
ref: 1871 October 1, “Northumbrian” [pseudonym], “Human holocausts in mines”, in Reynolds’s Newspaper: A Weekly Journal of Politics, History, Literature, and General Intelligence, number 1,103, London: […] [F]or the proprietors, George W[illiam] M[acArthur] Reynolds, […], and John Dicks, […], by the said John Dicks, […], →OCLC, page 3, column 1:
text: ANOTHER ARMENIAN HOLOCAUST; Five Villages Burned, Five Thousand Persons Made Homeless, and Anti-Christians Organized [article title]. […] The Daily News will to-morrow publish a dispatch from Kara, stating that fresh outrages have been perpetrated in the Erzinzian district.
ref: 1895 September 10, “Another Armenian holocaust: Five villages burned, five thousand persons made homeless, and anti-Christians organized”, in The New York Times, volume XLIV, number 13,745, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 1, column 6:
text: This trek, brought about by the startling recuperation of Turkey after her defeat in the World War and her subsequent triumph over the Greeks in Anatolia, eventually developed into a regulated Exchange of racial minorities, according to specific terms and under the supervision of the League of Nations. But the initial episodes of the Exchange drama were enacted to the accompaniment of the boom of cannon and the rattle of machine guns and with the settings painted by the flames of the Smyrna holocaust.
ref: 1925 November, Melville Chater, “History’s Greatest Trek: Tragedy Stalks through the Near East as Greece and Turkey Exchange Two Million of Their People”, in Gilbert Grosvenor, editor, National Geographic, volume XLVIII, number 5, Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society […], →ISSN, →OCLC, page 533, column 1:
text: [T]he entire Press, more particularly the French press, is worried lest there be some connection between the bloodless holocaust of German Generals and Ambassadors and the persistent reports that [Benito] Mussolini is about to intervene in Spain on the grand scale.
ref: 1938 February 6, “Proteus” [pseudonym], “The changing scene [Help for Franco?]”, in Gershon Agronsky, editor, The Palestine Post, volume XIV, number 3567, Jerusalem: The Palestine Post, →OCLC, page 4, column 4:
text: None will emerge the victor from this holocaust.
ref: 1953 December 22, Talbot Jennings, Jan Lustig, Noel Langley, Knights of the Round Table:
text: They had discussed what the European response would be in the event of a Soviet invasion of Western Europe. President de Gaulle, according to the report, had said that the United States could not be counted on in such an emergency. He mentioned that the United States had been late in arriving in two world wars and that it had required the holocaust of Pearl Harbor to bring us into the latter.
ref: 1971, Lyndon Johnson, “"I feel like I have already been here a year"”, in The Vantage Point, Holt, Reinhart & Winston, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 23:
text: I used the word holocaust deliberately & said the symbol of his [Menachem Begin's] war was becoming a picture of a 7 month old baby with it’s^([sic – meaning its]) arms blown off.
ref: 1982 August 12, Ronald Reagan, “The Diary Of Ronald Reagan”, in The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute, Diary Entry - 08/12/1982:
glosses: Extensive destruction of a group of animals or (especially) people; a large-scale massacre or slaughter.
glosses: Alternative letter-case form of Holocaust (“the systematic mass murder (democide or genocide) of Jews (and, more broadly, of disabled people, homosexuals, Romanis, Slavs, and others) perpetrated by Nazi Germany shortly before and during World War II”); hence, the state-sponsored mass murder of a particular group of people in society.
Hyponyms: animal holocaust
homocaust
nuclear holocaust
Derived terms: holocash
holocaustal
holocaustic
Lolocaust
oxygenation holocaust
oxygen holocaust
postholocaust
Related terms: caustic
holo-
ethnic cleansing
pogrom