protomartyr
Americannoun
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the first Christian martyr, Saint Stephen.
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the first martyr in any cause.
noun
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St Stephen as the first Christian martyr
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the first martyr to lay down his life in any cause
Etymology
Origin of protomartyr
1400–50; late Middle English prothomartyr < Late Latin prōtomartyr < Late Greek prōtómartys. See proto-, martyr
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The largest relic in England of the protomartyr is his thigh, preserved at St Michael's Benedictine Abbey, in Farnborough, Hampshire.
From BBC ● May 28, 2016
He is called protomartyr, that is the first witness, because he first after Christ's passion suffered martyrdom.
From The Homilies of the Anglo-Saxon Church Containing the Sermones Catholici, or Homilies of ?lfric, in the Original Anglo-Saxon, with an English Version. Volume I. by Abbot of Eynsham Aelfric
Why to the dying protomartyr was there granted that vision thus varied?
From Expositions of Holy Scripture St. Mark by Alexander Maclaren
No historical pilgrimage to Paris would be complete without a visit to the Sanctuary of its protomartyr and the burial-place of its kings.
From The Story of Paris by Katherine Kimball
Among the Aryans of India, as we have already seen, Death has a protomartyr, Tama, ‘the first of men who reached the river, spying out a path for many.’
From Modern Mythology by Andrew Lang
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
