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holocaust, n.|ˈhɒləʊkɔːst|
[a. F. holocauste (12th c.), ad. late L. holocaustum, a. Gr. ὁλόκαυστον neut. of ὁλόκαυστος (by-form of ὁλόκαυτος), f. ὅλο-ς whole + καυστός, καυτός burnt.]
1. A sacrifice wholly consumed by fire; a whole burnt offering.
c1250Gen. & Ex. 1326 Ysaac was leid ðat auter on, So men sulden holocaust don. 1526Tindale Mark xii. 33 A greater thynge then all holocaustes and sacrifises. 1680H. More Apocal. Apoc. 101 In the latter part thereof stands the altar of Holocausts. 1732Berkeley Alciphr. v. §3 Those Druids would have sacrificed many a holocaust of free-thinkers. 1847Grote Greece ii. xxxii. (1862) III. 162 A holocaust of the most munificent character.
2. transf. and fig.
a. A complete sacrifice or offering.
b. A sacrifice on a large scale.
1497Bp. Alcock Mons Perfect. C iij a, Very true obedyence is an holocauste of martyrdom made to Cryste. 1648J. Beaumont Psyche xxiv. cxciv. (R.), The perfect holocaust of generous love. 1688in Lond. Gaz. No. 2401/1 We..humbly offer our Lives and Fortunes..which is that true Holocaust which all true honest-hearted Scotsmen will give to so good..a Prince. a1711Ken Anodynes Poet. Wks. 1721 III. 477 While I thy Holocaust remain. 1868M. Pattison Academ. Org. v. 139 By another grand holocaust of fellowships we might perhaps purchase another respite.
c. Complete consumption by fire, or that which is so consumed; complete destruction, esp. of a large number of persons; a great slaughter or massacre.
1671Milton Samson 1702 Like that self-begotten bird In the Arabian woods embost, That no second knows nor third, And lay erewhile a Holocaust. a1711Ken Christophil Poet. Wks. 1721 I. 442 Shou'd gen'ral Flame this World consume.. An Holocaust for Fontal Sin. 1833L. Ritchie Wand. by Loire 104 Louis VII..once made a holocaust of thirteen hundred persons in a church. 1883B. M. Croker Pretty Miss Neville III. 124 When Major Percival has made a holocaust of your letters. 1940Hansard Commons 6 Mar. 416 The general holocaust of civilised standards. 1944H. F. Rubinstein Hated Servants 167 The siege will take a heavy toll, and few who live to the end of it will survive the holocaust that must follow. 1987Sunday Tel. 23 Nov. 15 (heading) Aids: the new holocaust.
d. the Holocaust: the mass murder of the Jews by the Nazis in the war of 1939–1945. Also used transf., of the similar fate of other groups; and attrib.
The specific application was introduced by historians during the 1950s, probably as an equivalent to Heb. ḥurban and shoah ‘catastrophe’ (used in the same sense); but it had been foreshadowed by contemporary references to the Nazi atrocities as a ‘holocaust’ (sense 2 c): see quots. 1942–49. The term is in common use among Jews, but seems to be otherwise relatively rare except among specialists.
[1942News Chron. 5 Dec. 2/2 Holocaust...Nothing else in Hitler's record is comparable to his treatment of the Jews...The word has gone forth that..the Jewish peoples are to be exterminated...The conscience of humanity stands aghast. 1943Hansard Lords 23 Mar. 826 The Nazis go on killing..If this rule could be relaxed, some hundreds, and possibly a few thousands, might be enabled to escape from this holocaust. 1945M. R. Cohen in S. Goldschmidt Legal Claims against Germany p.vi, Millions of surviving victims of the Nazi holocaust, Jews and non-Jews, will stand before us in the years to come. 1949Proc. Amer. Acad. for Jewish Research XVIII. 193 Problems of Jewish Hurban research.] 1957Yad Washem Bull. Apr. 35/2 (heading) Research on the Holocaust Period. 1958Ibid. July 2/2 The catastrophe which overtook us...The Inquisition..is not the same as the Holocaust. 1962B. Glanville Diamond xviii. 296 The holocaust..was the inevitable end, the logical conclusion of the pogroms, the Mosley marches, the hatred. 1965A. Donat (title) The holocaust kingdom. 1967N. Cohn Warrant for Genocide ix. 208 By the autumn of 1944 the holocaust was nearing its conclusion. 1968Manch. Guardian Weekly 25 Apr. 10/4 There is now within modern history a compartment of ‘holocaust studies’—dealing with the wholesale destruction by the Nazis of European Jewry. 1972F. Forsyth Odessa File 306 The mausoleum of Yad Vashem,..the shrine to six million of his fellow Jews who died in the holocaust. 1980Jewish Chron. 18 Apr. 9/3 A memorial service..to mark Holocaust Day.
transf.1973T. Bieleczki & L. Szymanski Warsaw Aflame 5 Genocide against the Polish as well as the Jewish sections of the population...Warsaw Aflame was..written by men who lived through the holocaust. 1981N. Davies God's Playground II. xx. 454 From 1941, Poland became the home of humanity's Holocaust. 1981F. Rector Nazi Extermination of Homosexuals vi. 115 The number of gay Holocaust victims is substantial. Ibid. 116 At least 500,000 gays died in the Holocaust. 1985A. Ramati And Violins stopped playing (1986) 7 The Germans don't even admit that there was a Gypsy holocaust..there are memorials in Auschwitz for all the nations whose people died there, except for the Gypsies!
Hence ˈholocaust v. trans., to offer as a holocaust. holoˈcaustal, holoˈcaustic adjs., belonging to or of the nature of a holocaust.
1651Cleveland Poems 52 Where you might have seen His conscience holocausted to his spleen. 1828Blackw. Mag. XXIV. 350 The retainers, ruggin' and rivin' at holocaustal sheep. 1871R. B. Vaughan St. Thomas of Aquin II. 920 The first principles of holocaustic sacrifice.
▸ Holocaust denial n. (also holocaust denial) denial that the Holocaust (sense 2d) occurred, or insistence that it has been greatly exaggerated; usually as part of a general espousal of extreme right-wing or neo-Nazi ideology.
1984W. Gleberzon in Interchange on Educ. 14–1566 It is evident that the *Holocaust denial writers..are writing from a new perspective on the past—one arising out of their basic premise that the Holocaust..is based on lies. 2000R. G. Teitel Transitional Justice iii. 106 Holocaust denial now creates a basis for criminal prosecution [in the U.S.]. According to the new laws, if a person ‘approved, denied or made light of acts of genocide perpetrated under the Nazis’ and the insulted party is a member of a group persecuted..this act gives rise to criminal liability.
▸ Holocaust denier n. (also holocaust denier) a person who engages in Holocaust denial, esp. as part of a consistent campaign or entrenched opinion.
1985Globe & Mail (Toronto) 9 Mar. 7/6 The terms ‘*Holocaust deniers’ or ‘history falsifiers’ are more accurate to describe..his network of supporters throughout the world. 1995N. G. Finkelstein Image & Reality of Israel–Palestine Conflict 193 One of the more crude Nazi holocaust deniers asserts that the ‘500,000 concentration camp survivors’ proves that the Third Reich did not pursue a systematic extermination policy. 2000Daily Tel. (Electronic ed.) 12 Apr. He was a Holocaust denier, who had..rubbished the existence of the gas chambers and twisted events to portray Hitler in a favourable light. |