menhir
Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word menhir. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word menhir, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say menhir in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word menhir you have here. The definition of the word menhir will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofmenhir, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
Ar Brigourien (The Talkers), a pair of menhirs on Île de Sein, an island which is part of Brittany, France.
menhir
See also: Menhir
English
Etymology
| PIE word |
|---|
| *méǵh₂s |
.jpg)
Either borrowed from French menhir, or from its etymon Breton maen-hir (literally “long stone”), from maen (“stone”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *méǵh₂s (“big, great”)) + hir (“long”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *seh₁- (“long; lasting”)). Cognate with Cornish mênhere, Welsh maen hir.[1]
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈmɛnhɪə/
Audio (Southern England): (file) - (General American) IPA(key): /ˈmɛnˌ(h)ɪ(ə)ɹ/
Audio (General American): (file) - Hyphenation: men‧hir
Noun
menhir (plural menhirs)
- (archaeology) A single tall standing stone as a monument, especially one dating to prehistoric times.
- Synonym: standing stone
- Hypernyms: monolith, megalith
- Near-synonym: orthostat
- 1963, Thomas Pynchon, “Confessions of Fausto Maijstral”, in V.: , Philadelphia, Pa., New York, N.Y.: J B Lippincott Company, →OCLC, pages 310–311:
- o time has passed since we lived in caves, grappled with fish at the reedy shore, buried our dead with a song, with red-ochre and pulled up our dolmens, temples and menhirs and standing stones to the glory of some indeterminate god or gods, […]
- 1980, Anthony Burgess, chapter 39, in Earthly Powers, Harmondsworth, Middlesex, London: Penguin Books, published 1981, →ISBN, page 280:
- On the coast tree ferns and pandanus palms. Inland termite menhirs seventeen feet high.
Translations
single tall standing stone as a monument
|
See also
References
- ^ “menhir, n.”, in OED Online
, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2020; “menhir, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
Further reading
Dutch
Etymology
Borrowed from Breton menhir, from Breton maen-hir.
Pronunciation
Audio: (file)
Noun
menhir m (plural menhirs, diminutive menhirtje n)
French
Etymology
Borrowed from Breton maen-hir, from maen (“stone”) + hir (“tall”) (compare Welsh maen hir, Cornish mênhere).
Pronunciation
Noun
menhir m (plural menhirs)
Further reading
- “menhir”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.
Polish
Etymology
Pronunciation
Noun
menhir m inan
- (archaeology) menhir (single tall standing stone as a monument, especially one dating to prehistoric times)
Declension
Declension of menhir
Further reading
Romanian
Etymology
Borrowed from Breton menhir, from Breton maen-hir.
Noun
menhir n (plural menhire)
Spanish
Etymology
Borrowed from French menhir, from Breton maen-hir.
Pronunciation
Noun
menhir m (plural menhires)
Further reading
- “menhir”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10