victory
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: vĭkʹtəri
enpr: vĭkʹtri
ipa: /ˈvɪk.tə.ɹi/
ipa: /ˈvɪk.tɹi/
Forms: form: victories
form: victorie
Etymology: The noun is derived from Middle English victory, victori, victorie (“supremacy, victory; a defeat or vanquishing, conquest; superior military force; might, power, strength; triumphal celebration or procession; monument commemorating a defeat; superior position, dominance; mastery; moral victory, vindication; success, triumph; redemption, salvation; resurrection of Jesus; means of achieving spiritual victory; reward for or token of perseverance in a spiritual struggle”) [and other forms], borrowed from Anglo-Norman victorie and Old French victorie, a variant of victoire (“victory, win”) (modern French victoire), from Latin victōria (“victory”), from victor (“champion, winner, victor; conqueror, vanquisher”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *weyk- (“to contain, envelop; to overcome”)) + -ia (suffix forming feminine abstract nouns). The English word is analysable as victor + -y (suffix forming abstract nouns denoting a condition, quality, or state), and displaced Middle English siȝe, sye.
The interjection is derived from the noun.
Cognates
* French victoire
* Italian vittoria
* Portuguese vitoria
* Spanish victoria
* Romanian victorie
Senses: examples: text: It was a great victory on the battlefield.
text: I behelde, and the ſame horne made battail agaynſt the ſayntes, yee ãd gat the victory off them: […]
ref: 1535 October 14 (Gregorian calendar), Myles Coverdale, transl., Biblia: The Byble, […] (Coverdale Bible), [Cologne or Marburg]: [Eucharius Cervicornus and Johannes Soter?], →OCLC, Daniel vij:[21], folio lxxxi, recto, column 1:
text: Hieronimo, it greatly pleaſeth vs, / That in our victorie thou haue a ſhare, / By vertue of thy vvorthy Sonnes exployt.
ref: c. 1587 (date written), [Thomas Kyd], The Spanish Tragedie: […] (Fourth Quarto), London: […] W[illiam] W[hite] for T[homas] Pauier, […], published 1602, →OCLC, Act I:
text: VVhy ſo: then am I ſure of Victorie. Novv therefore let vs hence, and loſe no hovvre, / Till vvee meet VVarvvicke, vvith his forreine povvre.
ref: c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i], page 164, column 1:
text: Fortune and victorie ſet on thy helme.
ref: c. 1593 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The Tragedy of King Richard the Third. […] (First Quarto), London: […] Valentine Sims [and Peter Short] for Andrew Wise, […], published 1597, →OCLC, [Act V, scene v]:
text: The teares haue got ſmall victory by that, / For it vvas bad enough before their ſpite.
ref: c. 1591–1595 (date written), [William Shakespeare], […] Romeo and Juliet. […] (First Quarto), London: […] Iohn Danter, published 1597, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:
text: So likevviſe in that book of his [Julius Caesar's] Anticato, it may eaſily appeare that he did aſpire as vvell to victorie of vvit, as victory of vvarre: […]
ref: 1605, Francis Bacon, “The First Booke”, in The Twoo Bookes of Francis Bacon. Of the Proficience and Aduancement of Learning, Diuine and Humane, London: […] [Thomas Purfoot and Thomas Creede] for Henrie Tomes, […], →OCLC, folio 39, verso:
text: Whereupon there was a very ſore battell: but Judas [Maccabeus] ſide by the helpe of God got the victory, […]
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 2 Maccabees 12:11, column 1:
text: But before I went from the office newes is brought by word of mouth that letters are now just now brought from the fleete of our taking a great many more of the Dutch fleete, […] Down to the office, and there wrote letters to and again about this good newes of our victory, and so by water home late.
ref: 1665 September 24 (date written; Gregorian calendar), Samuel Pepys, Mynors Bright, transcriber, “September 14th, 1665”, in Henry B[enjamin] Wheatley, editor, The Diary of Samuel Pepys […], volume V, London: George Bell & Sons […]; Cambridge: Deighton Bell & Co., published 1895, →OCLC, pages 76–77:
text: [S]uffering for Truths ſake / Is fortitude to higheſt victorie, […]
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 1460–1461:
text: Obſerve if he diſdains to yield the Prize; / Of Loſs impatient, proud of Victories.
ref: 1697, Virgil, “The Third Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 101, lines 163–164:
text: […] I thought he vvas not a Monarch only, but a great Conqueror; for that he that has got a Victory over his ovvn exorbitant Deſires, and has the abſolute Dominion over himſelf, vvhose Reaſon entirely governs his VVill, is certainly greater than he that conquers a City.
ref: 1719, [Daniel Defoe], The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe; […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC, page 353:
text: He had never dreamt, hovvever, of any event ſo deciſive and ſo fatal as the victory at Pavia, vvhich ſeemed not only to have broken, but to have annihilated the povver of one of the rivals; […]
ref: 1769, William Robertson, “Book IV”, in The History of the Reign of the Emperor Charles V. […], volume II, London: […] W. and W. Strahan, for W[illiam] Strahan, T[homas] Cadell, […]; and J. Balfour, […], →OCLC, page 232:
text: [I]t vvas his [Totila's] conſtant theme, that national vice and ruin are inſeparably connected; that victory is the fruit of moral as vvell as military virtue; and that the prince, and even the people, are reſponſible for the crimes vvhich they neglect to puniſh.
ref: 1788, Edward Gibbon, chapter XLIII, in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, volume IV, London: […] W[illiam] Strahan; and T[homas] Cadell, […], →OCLC, page 282:
text: [B]urn his rage / Hovv fierce ſoever, he ſhall find it hard / VVith all his thirſt of victory, to quell / Their firm reſiſtance, […]
ref: 1791, Homer, “[The Iliad.] Book XIII.”, in W[illiam] Cowper, transl., The Iliad and Odyssey of Homer, Translated into Blank Verse, […], volume I, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], →OCLC, page 335, lines 384–387:
text: Every body was surprised; and Darcy, after looking at her for a moment, turned silently away. Mrs. Bennet, who fancied she had gained a complete victory over him, continued her triumph.
ref: 1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter IX, in Pride and Prejudice: […], volume I, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 94:
text: "Farewell," he said, "the only hope, which could have lighted me to fame or victory!"
ref: 1828 May 15, [Walter Scott], chapter VI, in Chronicles of the Canongate. Second Series. […] (The Fair Maid of Perth), volume III, Edinburgh: […] [Ballantyne and Co.] for Cadell and Co.; London: Simpkin and Marshall, →OCLC, page 128:
text: A hope, still indeed faint and indefinite, of victory and revenge, animated the party which had lately seemed to be extinct.
ref: 1849, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter VI, in The History of England from the Accession of James II, volume II, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC, page 42:
text: Already there are certain signs that politicians within the Republican party are suffering from the intoxication of too much victory.
ref: 1921, The Pottery & Glass Salesman, volume 24, New York, N.Y.: O’Gorman Pub. Co., →OCLC, page 75:
text: England will not be catapulted among the favourites for Euro 2012 as a result of this win, but no victory against Spain is earned easily and it is right they take great heart from their efforts as they now prepare to play Sweden at Wembley on Tuesday.
ref: 2011 November 12, Phil McNulty, “International Friendly: England 1 – 0 Spain”, in BBC Sport, archived from the original on 13 Aug 2022:
synonyms: triumph
win
antonyms: defeat
loss
glosses: The condition or state of having won a battle or competition, or having succeeded in an effort; (countable) an instance of this.
examples: text: All along the Champs Elysées were […] statues of plaster representing nymphs, triumphs, victories, and other female personages painted in oil so as to represent marble; real marble could have had no better effect, and the appearance of the whole was lively and picturesque in the extreme.
ref: 1841, M. A. Titmarsh [pseudonym; William Makepeace Thackeray], “Mr. Titmarsh to Miss Smith on the Second Funeral of Napoleon. Letter III. The Funeral Ceremony.”, in The Second Funeral of Napoleon: […] And The Chronicle of the Drum. […], London: Hugh Cunningham, […], →OCLC, page 63:
topics: human-sciences
mysticism
mythology
philosophy
sciences
glosses: Alternative letter-case form of Victory (“(uncountable) the Roman goddess of victory, the counterpart of the Greek goddess Nike; also (countable), an artistic depiction of her, chiefly as a winged woman”).
Derived terms: Cadmean victory
dig for victory
hollow victory
landslide victory
margin of victory
moral victory
Pyrrhic victory
snatch defeat from the jaws of victory
snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory
snatch victory from the jaws of defeat
sudden victory
victory at sea
victory bond
Victory Day
victory garden
victory girl
Victory Island
victory lane
victory lap
victoryless
victory mosque
victory point
victory roll
victory sign
Related terms: word: victor
word: victoress
word: victoria
word: Victoria
word: victorious
word: victoriously
word: victoriousness
word: victor ludorum
word: victress
word: victrice
word: victrix