entry
marathon
/ˈmæɹəθən/Long-distance race or extended ordeal
From Greek Marathōn / μάραθον (fennel).
from French marathon, coined in 1894 by linguist Michel Bréal for the first modern time Olympic Games after Ancient...
from French marathon, coined in 1894 by linguist Michel Bréal for the first modern time Olympic Games after Ancient...
from French marathon, coined in 1894 by linguist Michel Bréal for the first modern time Olympic Games after Ancient...
from French marathon, coined in 1894 by linguist Michel Bréal for the first modern time Olympic Games after Ancient...
Word Ancestry
from French marathon, coined in 1894 by linguist Michel Bréal for the first modern time Olympic Games after Ancient...
from French marathon, coined in 1894 by linguist Michel Bréal for the first modern time Olympic Games after Ancient...
from French marathon, coined in 1894 by linguist Michel Bréal for the first modern time Olympic Games after Ancient...
from French marathon, coined in 1894 by linguist Michel Bréal for the first modern time Olympic Games after Ancient...
A race that feels like a test of human stubbornness began as a place-name pinned to a patch of fennel. In 1896, when the modern Olympics were being revived in Athens, organizers borrowed the tale of Pheidippides and gave the event a heroic label that sounded older than the stadium itself. The first race even started in Marathon and finished in the Panathenaic Stadium, which is the kind of theatrical geography the Greeks would probably have admired. Herodotus’s original version of the story is fussier and less cinematic, sending the runner to Sparta instead, but the Athens version won because it was irresistible. That’s why marathon now means not just 26.2 miles, but any slog that seems to go on long after sanity has packed up and left.
The Story
A race that feels like a test of human stubbornness began as a place-name pinned to a patch of fennel. In 1896, when the modern Olympics were being revived in Athens, organizers borrowed the tale of Pheidippides and gave the event a heroic label that sounded older than the stadium itself. The first race even started in Marathon and finished in the Panathenaic Stadium, which is the kind of theatrical geography the Greeks would probably have admired. Herodotus’s original version of the story is fussier and less cinematic, sending the runner to Sparta instead, but the Athens version won because it was irresistible. That’s why marathon now means not just 26.2 miles, but any slog that seems to go on long after sanity has packed up and left.
Kin & Kindred
From 'Marathōn / μάραθον'·fennel; fennel field / place-name
Derived Terms
English words from this root