victory

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) enPR: vĭkʹtəri, vĭkʹtri, IPA^(key): /ˈvɪktəɹi/, /ˈvɪktɹi/

• Audio (GA)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: vic‧tory

Etymology 1

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”) , 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.

Noun

victory (countable and uncountable, plural victories)

1. (uncountable) The condition or state of having won a battle or competition, or having succeeded in an effort; (countable) an instance of this.

   Synonyms: triumph, win

   Antonyms: defeat, loss

   It was a great victory on the battlefield.

   • 1535 October 14 (Gregorian calendar), Myles Coverdale, transl., Biblia: The Byble,  (Coverdale Bible), , →OCLC, Daniel vij:[21], folio lxxxi, recto, column 1:

     I behelde, and the ſame horne made battail agaynſt the ſayntes, yee ãd gat the victory off them: […]

   • c. 1587 (date written), [Thomas Kyd], The Spanish Tragedie:  (Fourth Quarto), London: W W for T Pauier, , published 1602, →OCLC, Act I:

     Hieronimo, it greatly pleaſeth vs, / That in our victorie thou haue a ſhare, / By vertue of thy vvorthy Sonnes exployt.

   • 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 Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , page 164, column 1:

     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.

   • c. 1593 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The Tragedy of King Richard the Third.  (First Quarto), London: Valentine Sims for Andrew Wise, , published 1597, →OCLC, [Act V, scene v]:

     Fortune and victorie ſet on thy helme.

     A personification.

   • c. 1591–1595 (date written), [William Shakespeare], Romeo and Juliet.  (First Quarto), London: Iohn Danter, published 1597, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:

     The teares haue got ſmall victory by that, / For it vvas bad enough before their ſpite.

   • 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:

     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: […]

   • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, 2 Maccabees 12:11, column 1:

     Whereupon there was a very ſore battell: but Judas [Maccabeus] ſide by the helpe of God got the victory, […]

   • 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:

     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.

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. , London: [Samuel Simmons], , →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: , London: Basil Montagu Pickering , 1873, →OCLC, lines 1460–1461:

     [S]uffering for Truths ſake / Is fortitude to higheſt victorie, […]

   • 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:

     Obſerve if he diſdains to yield the Prize; / Of Loſs impatient, proud of Victories.

   • 1719, [Daniel Defoe], The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe; , London: W Taylor , →OCLC, page 353:

     […] 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.

   • 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 Strahan, T Cadell, ; and J. Balfour, , →OCLC, page 232:

     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; […]

   • 1788, Edward Gibbon, chapter XLIII, in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, volume IV, London: W Strahan; and T Cadell, , →OCLC, page 282:

     [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.

   • 1791, Homer, W[illiam] Cowper, transl., “[The Iliad.] Book XIII.”, in The Iliad and Odyssey of Homer, Translated into Blank Verse, , volume I, London: J Johnson, , →OCLC, page 335, lines 384–387:

     [B]urn his rage / Hovv fierce ſoever, he ſhall find it hard / VVith all his thirſt of victory, to quell / Their firm reſiſtance, […]

   • 1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter IX, in Pride and Prejudice: , volume I, London: for T Egerton, , →OCLC, page 94:

     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.

   • 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:

     "Farewell," he said, "the only hope, which could have lighted me to fame or victory!"

   • 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:

     A hope, still indeed faint and indefinite, of victory and revenge, animated the party which had lately seemed to be extinct.

   • 1921, The Pottery & Glass Salesman, volume 24, New York, N.Y.: O’Gorman Pub. Co., →OCLC, page 75:

     Already there are certain signs that politicians within the Republican party are suffering from the intoxication of too much victory.

   • 2011 November 12, Phil McNulty, “International Friendly: England 1 – 0 Spain”, in BBC Sport‎, archived from the original on 2022-08-13:

     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.

2. (Roman mythology) 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”)
   • 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:

     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.

Alternative forms

• victorie (obsolete)

Derived terms

Related terms

Descendants

• → Maori: wikitōriatanga

Translations

Interjection

victory

1. Used to encourage someone to achieve success, or to celebrate a success or triumph.
   • 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , page 113, column 1:

     Saint George and Victory; fight Souldiers, fight: […]

   • 1817 December (indicated as 1818), Percy B[ysshe] Shelley, “Canto Fifth”, in Laon and Cythna; or, The Revolution of the Golden City: A Vision of the Nineteenth Century. , London: or Sherwood, Neely, & Jones, ; and C and J Ollier, ; by B. M‘Millan, , →OCLC, stanza LI, section 6, page 123:

     Victory! Victory to the prostrate nations! / Bear witness Night, and ye mute Constellations / Who gaze on us from your crystalline cars! / Thoughts have gone forth whose powers can sleep no more! / Victory! Victory!

   • 1821 (date written), Percy B[ysshe] Shelley, Hellas: A Lyrical Drama, London: Charles and James Ollier , published 1822, →OCLC, page 47:

     Victory! Victory! Russia's famish'd eagles / Dare not to prey beneath the crescent's light.

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English victorien (“to overcome, vanquish”), from Old French victorier, or from Medieval Latin victōriāre, from Latin victōria (noun); see further at etymology 1.

Verb

victory (third-person singular simple present victories, present participle victorying, simple past and past participle victoried)

1. (transitive, obsolete or rare) To defeat or triumph over (someone or something).
   • 1639, John Welles, “Of Mortification”, in The Soules Progresse to the Celestiall Canaan, or Heavenly Jerusalem. , London: E G and are to be sold by Henry Shephard , →OCLC, 2nd part, page 245:

     [W]hen ſin got the upper hand of us, and vvee victoried by them; vve vvere then their ſervants, their ſlave: vvhen vvee overcome and have victoried them; let us make them our ſlaves perpetually; let us bind them in chaines, caſt them in priſon, and for ever utterly deſtroy their evill povver: […]

   • 1663, Edward Waterhous [i.e., Edward Waterhouse], chapter XLVIII, in Fortescutus Illustratus; or A Commentary on that Nervous Treatise De Laudibus Legum Angliæ, Written by Sir John Fortescue Knight, , London: Tho Roycroft for Thomas Dicas , →OCLC, page 517:

     [The game of dice and ball] is near of kin, in the nature of the vvord to that game of Cock-all, vvhich boyes uſe amongſt us, vvhich Cock-all, is as much vvin and take all, as a Cock does vvho victorying, has not onely the praiſe of all, but vvins all thats laied on the match by the Abettors againſt him.

References

Further reading

• victory on Wikipedia.Wikipedia