protomartyr
(prəʊtəʊˈmɑːtə(r))
Forms: 5 prothomartir, -er, 5–6 prothomartyr, 6– protomartyr.
[Late ME. prothomartir, a. OF. prothomartir (1326 in Godef.), mod.F. protomartyr, or a. med.L. prōtomartyr (in Beda), a. eccl. Gr. πρωτόµαρτυρ: see proto- and martyr n.]
The first martyr; the earliest of any series of martyrs (for Christianity, or for any cause); spec. applied to St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr.
| 1433 Lydg. St. Edmund iii. 43 The prothomartir seyn Steuene with his stonys. Ibid. 58 Seynt Albon Prothomartyr off this regioun. a 1555 Ridley in Coverdale Lett. Martyrs (1564) 73 Agayne I blesse God in our deare brother and of thys tyme protomartyr Rogers, that he was also..a prebendarye preacher of London. 1594 Carew Huarte's Exam. Wits (1616) 187 That [declaration] which S. Stephen the Prothomartyr made in his discourse to the Iewes. c 1661 Mrq. Argyle's Last Will in Harl. Misc. (Malh.) II. 508 Archibald, Marquis of Argyle, the Devil's viceroy in the Highlands, and the most sacred covenant's protomartyr in the Low. a 1749 Boyse Triumphs Nat. Poems (1810) 537/1 With Hampden firm assertor of her laws, And protomartyr in the glorious cause. 1877 Shields Final Philos. 205 As early as the twelfth century Arnold of Brescia,..proto-martyr of civil liberty, had perished. |