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behemoth

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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WOTD – 3 July 2006
Behemoth (center) and Leviathan (bottom), by William Blake.

Etymology

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From Middle English behemoth, bemoth, from Late Latin behemoth, from Hebrew בְּהֵמוֹת (behemót). Most likely, the Hebrew word is an intensive plural of בְּהֵמָה (behemá, “beast”), from Proto-Semitic (compare Ge'ez ብህመ (bəhmä, “to be dumb, to be speechless”), Arabic ب ه م (b-h-m)).
Some have instead suggested a borrowing from a hypothetical Egyptian
pAiHE1mw
 (*pꜣ-jḥ-mw, “hippopotamus”, literally “the ox of the water”), from pꜣ (“definite article”) + jḥ (“ox, cattle”) + mw (“water”) in a direct genitive construction (for the pronunciation, compare the later Coptic descendants ⲡ- (p-) + ⲉϩⲉ (ehe) + ⲙⲟⲟⲩ (moou)); this, however, suffers from problems such as the lack of attestation of the supposed etymon, and there seems little reason to prefer it to the intensive plural explanation.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /bəˈhi(ː).məθ/, /ˈbiː.əˌməθ/
  • Audio (US):(file)

Noun

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behemoth (plural behemoths)

  1. (biblical) A great and mighty beast which God shows to Job in Job 40:15–24.
    Coordinate term: leviathan
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Job 40:15–18, column 1:
      ⸿ Beholde now Behemoth which I made with thee, hee eateth graſſe as an oxe.
      Loe now, his ſtrength is in his loynes, and his force is in the nauell of his belly.
      Hee moueth his taile like a Cedar: the ſinewes of his ſtones are wrapt together.
      His bones are as ſtrong pieces of braſſe: his bones are like barres of iron.
  2. (by extension) Any great and mighty monster.
    • 2001, Eoin Colfer, Artemis Fowl, page 58:
      Next she doused the smouldering troll with the contents of the restaurant's fire extinguisher, hoping the icy powder wouldn't revive the sleeping behemoth.
  3. (figurative) Something which has the qualities of great power and might, and monstrous proportions.
    Synonyms: colossus, leviathan, mammoth, titan
    • 2011 January 18, Joe Lovejoy, “Cardiff City 0 Stoke City 2”, in Guardian Online‎[1]:
      The diehards who did turn out were at least rewarded with a first sight of Jon Parkin, the behemoth striker signed from Preston, who scored a stunning goal on his debut at Norwich last weekend.
    • 2012, James S. A. Corey, Gods of Risk, →ISBN:
      The wide access corridors passed slowly, the conduits and pipes like the circulatory system of some vast planetary behemoth.
    • 2021 January 4, Parul Koul, Chewy Shaw, “We Built Google. This Is Not the Company We Want to Work For.”, in The New York Times‎[2], →ISSN:
      We are the workers who built Alphabet. We write code, clean offices, serve food, drive buses, test self-driving cars and do everything needed to keep this behemoth running.
    • 2021 March 10, Drachinifel, 14:35 from the start, in Guadalcanal Campaign - The Big Night Battle: Night 1 (IJN 3(?) : 2 USN)‎[3], archived from the original on 17 October 2022:
      Hiei now loomed into the action, causing the leading U.S. destroyers to scatter before the oncoming behemoth lest they be run down.
    • 2024 November 13, Paul Bigland, “Much to admire... but pockets of neglect”, in RAIL, number 1022, page 50:
      And it's not just freight that arrives here. I notice several massive passenger liners, looking more like floating blocks of flats rather than the elegant ships from the days when 'POSH' was coined. The arrival of just one of these behemoths can swamp Southampton station with passengers and luggage, but not today.

Derived terms

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Translations

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See also

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Further reading

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