menhir

American  

[men-hir] / ˈmɛn hɪr /

noun

Archaeology.

1. an upright monumental stone standing either alone or with others, as in an alignment, found chiefly in Cornwall and Brittany.

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menhir British  

/ ˈmɛnhɪə /

noun

1. a single standing stone, often carved, dating from the middle Bronze Age in the British Isles and from the late Neolithic Age in W Europe

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Etymology

Origin of menhir

1830–40; < Breton phrase men hir, equivalent to men stone + hir long

Example Sentences

Some 500 years before Stonehenge, predecessors of the Celts near Locmariaquer in Brittany may have used the 385-ton stone Grand Menhir, now toppled and broken, for astronomical observations.

From Time Magazine Archive

Menhir, men′hēr, n. a tall, often massive, stone, set up on end as a monument in ancient times, either singly or in groups, circles, &c.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 2 of 4: E-M) by Various

A town in Brittany; megaliths at, 42 Menhir.

From Legends & Romances of Brittany by Spence, Lewis

Such are the Dolmen, called in Corsica Stazzone; and the Menhir, to which they give the fanciful name of Stantare.

From Rambles in the Islands of Corsica and Sardinia with Notices of their History, Antiquities, and Present Condition. by Forester, Thomas

Menhir, a kind of rude obelisk understood to be a sepulchral monument.

From The Nuttall Encyclopædia Being a Concise and Comprehensive Dictionary of General Knowledge by Nuttall, P. Austin