Macbeth

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A tragedy by William Shakespeare that explores themes of ambition, guilt, and the supernatural through the story of a Scottish general's rise and fall
2. A dramatic work featuring the titular character who, spurred by prophecy and his wife's encouragement, commits regicide, leading to his eventual demise
3. A play highlighting the psychological and moral consequences of unchecked ambition, set against a backdrop of political intrigue and inner turmoil

Etymology: The name began as a real Scottish one. "Mac Bethad" is Middle Irish for "son of life" (or "son of Bethad", with the second element meaning "life" in the sense of "bheatha"), and it was the Gaelic name of the eleventh-century king of Scotland whom Shakespeare dramatized. The play's title is simply that personal name, anglicized, so the tragedy is named after a man rather than after a concept or a plot. The stage use came later than the king. Shakespeare's play, written around 1606, drew on Raphael Holinshed's chronicles, which had turned the historical Mac Bethad into a murderous usurper. Over time the name stopped referring only to the Scottish monarch and came to stand for the play itself, and then for a figure of ambition and guilt. The word is used now as a noun for the tragedy, with the sense of "a play about unchecked ambition and its moral and psychological costs" carried by the title.