marathon

Meanings

Noun

• A 42.195 kilometre (26 mile 385 yard) road race.
• Any extended or sustained activity.

Verb

• To run a marathon.
• To watch or read a large number of instalments of (a film, book, TV series, etc.) in one sitting.

Origin

• From French marathon, coined in 1894 by linguist Michel Bréal for the first modern time Olympic Games after Ancient Greek Μαραθών, a town northeast of Athens. Phidippides the Greek ran the distance from Marathon to Athens to deliver a message regarding the Battle of Marathon. The modern sport of marathon running is based on a run approximately the same distance. The toponym itself comes from μάραθον and refers to the prevalence of the plant in the area.