menhir

menhir

See also: Menhir

English

WOTD – 17 October 2021

Etymology

PIE word
*méǵh₂s

Ar Brigourien (The Talkers), a pair of menhirs on Île de Sein, an island which is part of Brittany, France.

Either borrowed from French menhir, or from its etymon Breton maen-hir (literally “long stone”), from maen (“stone”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *méǵh₂s (“big, great”)) + hir (“long”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *seh₁- (“long; lasting”)). The English word is cognate with Cornish mênhere, Welsh maen hir.[1]

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈmɛnhɪə/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈmɛnˌ(h)ɪ(ə)ɹ/

• Audio (GA)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: men‧hir

Noun

menhir (plural menhirs)

1. (archaeology) A single tall standing stone as a monument, especially one dating to prehistoric times.

   Synonym: orthostat

   • 1963, Thomas Pynchon, “Confessions of Fausto Maijstral”, in V.: […], Philadelphia, Pa.; New York, N.Y.: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott Company, OCLC 463482294, pages 310–311:

     [N]o time has passed since we lived in caves, grappled with fish at the reedy shore, buried our dead with a song, with red-ochre and pulled up our dolmens, temples and menhirs and standing stones to the glory of some indeterminate god or gods, […]

   • 1980, Anthony Burgess, chapter 39, in Earthly Powers, Harmondsworth, Middlesex, London: Penguin Books, published 1981, →ISBN, page 280:

     On the coast tree ferns and pandanus palms. Inland termite menhirs seventeen feet high.

Translations

single tall standing stone as a monument

Afrikaans: menhir Arabic: شاهد قائم‎ Aragonese: menhir Armenian: մենհիր (hy) (menhir) Asturian: menhir Basque: menhir, iruinharri Belarusian: менгір m (mjenhir) Breton: peulvan (br) Bulgarian: менхир m (menhir) Catalan: menhir (ca) m Chinese: Mandarin: 立石 (zh) (lìshí) Czech: menhir (cs) Danish: bautasten (da) c Dutch: menhir (nl) m Esperanto: menhiro Estonian: menhir (et) Faroese: beytasteinur m Finnish: menhir (fi), megaliitti French: menhir (fr) m Galician: menhir m, lapa (gl) f, pedrafita (gl) f Georgian: მენჰირი (menhiri) German: Menhir (de) m, Druidenstein m, Hinkelstein (de) m, Hünenstein m Greek: μενίρ (el) n (menír) Hebrew: מנהיר‎ (he) Hungarian: menhír, kőszál Ido: menhiro (io) Indonesian: menhir (id) Irish: gallán m Italian: menhir (it) m Japanese: メンヒル (menhiru) Kazakh: менгир (mengir), қадатас (qadatas) Korean: 선돌 (ko) (seondol) Lithuanian: menhyras Macedonian: менхир (menhir) Malay: menhir Malayalam: മെൻഹിർ (meṉhiṟ) Marathi: वीरगळ (vīrgaḷ) Norwegian: Nynorsk: menhir Occitan: menir Persian: سنگ‌افراشت‎ Polish: menhir (pl) m Portuguese: menir (pt) m Quechua: sayakuq rumi Romanian: menhir (ro) n Russian: менги́р (ru) m (mengír) Scottish Gaelic: tursa m Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: мѐнхӣр m Roman: mènhīr (sh) m Slovak: menhir Slovene: menhir (sl) Spanish: menhir (es) m Swedish: bautasten (sv), rest sten Tagalog: nakatayong bato Tamil: குத்துக்கல் (ta) (kuttukkal) Tatar: менгир (mengir), озынташ (ozıntaş), тораташ (tt) (torataş) Turkish: menhir Ukrainian: менгі́р (menhír) Uzbek: mengir Walloon: menir (wa) m West Frisian: menhir

See also

• stela, stele

References

1. “menhir, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, December 2020; “menhir, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

• menhir on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

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Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from French menhir, from Breton maen-hir.

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

menhir m (plural menhirs, diminutive menhirtje n)

1. (archaeology)menhir

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French

Etymology

Borrowed from Breton maen-hir, from maen (“stone”) +‎ hir (“tall”) (compare Welsh maen hir, Cornish mênhere).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /me.niʁ/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

menhir m (plural menhirs)

1. (archaeology)menhir

Further reading

• “menhir”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

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Polish

menhir

Etymology

Borrowed from French menhir, from Breton maen-hir, from maen (“stone”) +‎ hir (“tall”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɛn.xir/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛnxir
• Syllabification: men‧hir

Noun

menhir m inan

1. (archaeology) menhir (standing stone as a monument)

Declension

Declension of menhir

	singular	plural
nominative	menhir	menhiry
genitive	menhiru	menhirów
dative	menhirowi	menhirom
accusative	menhir	menhiry
instrumental	menhirem	menhirami
locative	menhirze	menhirach
vocative	menhirze	menhiry

Further reading

• menhir in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• menhir in Polish dictionaries at PWN

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Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French menhir, from Breton maen-hir.

Noun

menhir n (plural menhire)

1. (archaeology)menhir

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Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from French menhir, from Breton maen-hir.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /meˈniɾ/ [meˈniɾ]
• Rhymes: -iɾ

Noun

menhir m (plural menhires)

1. (archaeology)menhir

Further reading

• “menhir”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014