the.com/martyr
someone so convinced they're right they're willing to make it your problem forever.
means A person who suffers or dies for a cause or belief, or — more loosely — someone who endlessly advertises their own sacrifice and suffering.
from From Greek 'martyr,' meaning simply 'witness' — someone who gave testimony. Early Christians adopted the word for those who bore witness to their faith with their lives, and the legal sense of 'one who testifies' hardened into 'one who dies for what they testify to.' Passed through Latin 'martyr' and into Old English, it kept that weight ever since — though the modern eye-rolling sense, the suffering-out-loud kind, is a much later softening.
- word origin
- Greek for witness, not victim
- complaint variant
- the unkillable household martyr never actually dies
- branding power
- dead believers convert faster than living preachers
- surprising count
- early Christianity's growth ran partly on executions
joan of arc — french military leader burned at stake in rouen, 1431
emmett till — 14-year-old black american lynched in mississippi, 1955, sparked civil rights movement
rachel corrie — american activist run over by israeli bulldozer in gaza, 2003