Martirdom

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Death or severe suffering inflicted on someone for refusing to renounce their religious faith or moral convictions
2. The state of being put to death or tortured because of steadfast adherence to a belief or cause
3. Persecution unto death or grave hardship experienced by someone who refuses to abandon their deeply held beliefs

Etymology: Spelled correctly, this is "martyrdom," and its story starts in a courtroom. In ancient Greek, "martys" meant a witness, someone who testified to what they had seen. Early Christians applied the term to those who bore witness to their faith, and when persecution meant many of those witnesses were killed, it came to mean someone who died for their beliefs. The original sense was testimony, not sacrifice, so the modern meaning narrowed within the religious community. English formed the noun by adding "-dom," an Old English suffix meaning a state or condition, as in "kingdom" and "freedom," to "martyr," which reached English through Latin from Greek. The suffix's relative "doom," once meaning judgment or decree, shows the same root. Literally, martyrdom is the condition of having borne witness.

Synonyms: martyrdom