leviathan
Part of speech: noun
adj
Morphological type: derivation
Topics: biblical
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Etymology: The noun is derived from Middle English leviathan, levyathan, levyethan, from Late Latin leviathan, a transliteration of Biblical Hebrew לִוְיָתָן (liwyāṯān), possibly from לִוְיָה (liwyâ, “garland, wreath”) + ־תָּן (-tān, suffix forming agent nouns), literally “the tortuous one”.
Noun sense 2.2 (“political state”) was coined by English philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) in his work Leviathan (1651): see the quotation. Noun sense 2.3 (“synonym of Satan”) refers to Isaiah 27:1 in the Bible (King James Version, spelling modernized): “In that day the Lord with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish Leviathan the piercing serpent, even Leviathan that crooked serpent, and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.”
The adjective is from an attributive use of the noun.
Base: לִוְיָה
Affixes: -תָּן
Inflected forms:
form: leviathans
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: Leviathan
pos: noun
tags: alternative
Senses:
gloss: A vast sea monster of tremendous strength, either imaginary or real, described as the most dangerous and powerful creature in the ocean.
pos: noun
examples: So is this greate and wyde ſee [sea] alſo, wherin are thinges crepinge innumerable, both ſmall and greate beaſtes. There go the ſhippes ouer, and there is that Leuiathan, whom thou haſt made, to take his paſtyme therin.
Euen ſo do I thinke them no trewe Chryſtian men that do not reioyce with the Angels of heauen for the deliuerie of theſe owre brootherne, owre fleſſhe, and owre bones, from the handes of owre commune enemie the oulde ſerpente who hath ſo longe had them in hys poſſeſſion, vntyll the fulneſſe of the gentyles be accomplyſſhed accordynge to the time prefinite by hym, who vnto the yeare after his incarnation. M. CCCC. lxxxxii. hath ſuffered the greate ſerpente of the ſea Leuiathan, to haue ſuche dominion in the Ocean […]
The fomie vvaues out of the dreadfull deep, / The huge Leuiathan, dame Natures vvonder, / Making his ſport, that manie makes to vveep: […]
Canſt thou dravv out Leuiathan vvith an hooke? or his tongue vvith a corde vvhich thou letteſt dovvne?
[T]hat Sea beaſt / Leviathan, vvhich God of all his vvorks / Created hugeſt that ſvvim th' Ocean ſtream: […]
High mid'ſt the Clouds the boyling Ocean roars / And looks far dovvn on his decreaſing Shoars / Leviathans in plaintive Thunder cry, / In diſtant, diſmal Pants, the long-liv'd Echos dye.
The Sea-dog and the Dolphin are her food; / She makes the huge Leviathan her prey, / And all the monſters of the vvat'ry vvay; […]
The fog seemed to break away as though split by a wedge, and the bow of a steamboat emerged, trailing fog-wreaths on either side like seaweed on the snout of Leviathan.
gloss: A thing which is monstrously great in size, strength, etc. (especially a ship); also, a person with great power or wealth.
pos: noun
tags: figuratively
examples: Of this laſt requeſt, the Lacquy of this great Leuiathan, promiſde he ſhould be maiſter, but he vvould not bring him to a miles end by land, (they vvere too many to meddle vvith).
So can the Lord deal, and often doth, vvith the great Behemoths and Leviathans of the vvorld: […]
The Duke of Bedford [Francis Russell, 5th Duke of Bedford] is the Leviathan among all the creatures of the Crovvn. He tumbles about his unvvieldy bulk; he plays and frolicks in the ocean of the Royal bounty.
The oak leviathans, whose huge ribs make / Their clay creator the vain title take / Of lord of thee, and arbiter of war; […]
[F]oreseeing the result of a legal contest with so potent a defendant as this leviathan of two counties, and that, under any nominal award, the whole estate of the orphans might be swallowed up on the costs of any suit that should be carried into Chancery, they prudently withdrew from all active measures of opposition, confiding the event to Lord Lonsdale [William Lowther, 1st Earl of Lonsdale]'s returning sense of justice.
When she had exhibited these leviathans of public announcement [large canvas scrolls] to the astonished child, she brought forth specimens of the lesser fry in the shape of hand-bills, some of which were couched in the form of parodies on popular melodies, […]
It [a newspaper article] named some sons of bishops, and grandsons of archbishops; men great in their way, who had redeemed their disgrace in the eyes of many by the enormity of their plunder; and then, having disposed of these leviathans, it descended to Mr Harding.
Keeping his footing on the heaving deck by clutching the bulwarks, my brother looked past this charging leviathan [a torpedo ram warship] at the Martians again, and he saw the three of them now close together, and standing so far out to sea that their tripod supports were almost entirely submerged.
After brute-forcing its way to dominance in so many industries, the tech leviathan may finally have met its match [subtitle].
gloss: Sometimes in the form Leviathan: based on the writings of Thomas Hobbes, the political state, especially a domineering and totalitarian one.
pos: noun
tags: figuratively
examples: Holonym: the System
[T]he Multitude ſo united in one Perſon, is called a Common-vvealth, in latine Civitas. This is the generation of that great Leviathan, or rather (to ſpeake more reverently) of that Mortall God, to vvhich vvee ovve under the Immortall God, our peace and defence.
[I]f a Chriſtian, vvho has the view of Happineſs and Miſery in another Life, be asked vvhy a Man muſt keep his VVord, he vvill give this as a Reaſon: Becauſe God, vvho has the Povver of eternal Life and Death, requires it of us. But if an Hobbiſt [a follower of the doctrines of Thomas Hobbes] be asked vvhy; he vvill anſvver, Becauſe the Publick requires it, and the Leviathan vvill puniſh you, if you do not.
The fact is that [Thomas] Hobbes is interested in neither, but concerned exclusively with the political structure itself, and he depicts the features of man according to the needs of the Leviathan.
gloss: Synonym of Satan (“the supreme evil spirit in the Abrahamic religions, who tempts humanity into sin; the Devil”).
pos: noun
tags: figuratively
obsolete
examples: [S]eu'n times thrice more glorious the name, / By vvhich thrice povverfull vvee coniure the ſame: / VVhich but repeated doth that Dragon feare, / That olde Leuyathan vvhoſe iavves Lord teare. / […] / Then glorious Captaine, our chiefe God and man, / Breake thou the Iavves of old Leuiathan.
gloss: Very large; enormous, gargantuan.
pos: adj
tags: not-comparable
examples: Her virtuous, pale-blue, saucerlike eyes flooded with leviathan tears on unexpected occasions and made Yossarian mad.
Derived words: leviathanic
Translations: