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Juggernaut
Definitions
- 1 The Hindu deity Vishnu's avatar Krishna. historical
- 1 A literal or metaphorical force or object regarded as unstoppable, that will crush all in its path.
"[…] poor Johnny Tetterby staggering under his Moloch of an infant, the Juggernaut that crushes all his enjoyments."
- 2 a crude idol of Krishna wordnet
- 3 A large, cumbersome truck or lorry, especially an artic. British, Ireland, derogatory, sometimes
"I know I swing me Volvo all around you market square. I know you think that lorry drivers, we just don't care. But the streets are so narrow, built so many years ago. They were built for horses' carts, not juggernauts you know."
- 4 a massive inexorable force that seems to crush everything in its way wordnet
- 5 An institution that incites destructive devotion or to which people are carelessly sacrificed.
Etymology
Borrowed in the 17th century into British English in India, from Hindustani جگنّاتھ / जगन्नाथ (jagannāth) or Odia ଜଗନ୍ନାଥ (jagannātha), from Sanskrit जगन्नाथ (jagannātha, “Lord of the Universe”) (Jagannatha), a title for the Hindu deity Vishnu's avatar Krishna. The sense comes from witnessing the Rath Yatra (chariot parade) at Puri, Orissa, a huge annual procession which features a wagon of the idol of Jagannath; pulled with ropes by hundreds of devotees, the wagon develops considerable momentum and becomes unstoppable. The r was not originally pronounced: for non-rhotic dialects of British English, the spelling with -er- accurately suggests the Hindi pronunciation of the second vowel (a schwa); compare e.g. gorm. The spelling of the ending was influenced by the suffix -naut (“traveller, voyager”). Doublet of Jagannath.
See juggernaut.
See also for "juggernaut"
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