marathon

English Online Dictionary. What means marathon‎? What does marathon mean?

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^(key): /ˈmæɹəθən/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈmæɹəˌθɑn/, /ˈmɛɹəˌθɑn/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈmæɹə(ˌ)θɔn/
• (New Zealand) IPA^(key): /ˈmɛɹə(ˌ)θɔn/
• Hyphenation: mar‧a‧thon

Noun

marathon (plural marathons)

1. A 42.195-kilometre (26-mile-385-yard) road race.
2. (figuratively, by extension) Any extended or sustained activity.

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)

1. (intransitive) To run a marathon.
2. (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

Dutch

Pronunciation

Noun

marathon m (plural marathons, diminutive marathonnetje n)

1. marathon

Descendants

• → Papiamentu: máratòn

French

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek Μαραθών (Marathṓn).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ma.ʁa.tɔ̃/

Noun

marathon m (plural marathons)

1. 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.