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Behemoth
Definitions
- 1 A great and mighty beast which God shows to Job in Job 40:15–24.
"⸿ 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 a person of exceptional importance and reputation wordnet
- 3 Any great and mighty monster. broadly
"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."
- 4 someone that is abnormally large and powerful wordnet
- 5 Something which has the qualities of great power and might, and monstrous proportions. figuratively
"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."
Etymology
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 pA-i-H-E1-mw (*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.
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