menhir

See also: Menhir

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French menhir, from Breton maen-hir, from maen (“stone”) +‎ hir (“tall”) (compare Welsh maen hir, Cornish mênhere).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɛn.hɪə(ɹ)/

  • Audio (UK)

    (file)

Noun

menhir (plural menhirs)

1. (archaeology) A single tall standing stone as a monument, especially of prehistoric times.
   • 1963, Thomas Pynchon, V.:

     […] no time has passed since we lived in caves, grappled with fish at the reedy shore, buried our dead with a song, with red-ochre and pulled up our dolmens, temples and menhirs and standing stones to the glory of some indeterminate god or gods […]

   • 1980, Anthony Burgess, Earthly Powers:

     On the coast tree ferns and pandanus palms. Inland termite menhirs seventeen feet high.

Translations

standing stone as a monument

• Basque: iruinharri
• Breton: peulvan (br)
• Bulgarian: менхир m (menhir)
• Catalan: menhir (ca) m
• Danish: bautasten (da) c
• Dutch: menhir (nl) m
• Esperanto: menhiro
• Faroese: beytasteinur m
• Finnish: megaliitti
• French: menhir (fr) m
• Galician: lapa (gl) f, pedrafita (gl) f

• German: Menhir (de) m, Hinkelstein (de) m, Druidenstein m, Hünenstein m
• Greek: μενίρ (el) n (menír)
• Hungarian: menhír, kőszál
• Irish: gallán m
• Polish: menhir (pl) m
• Portuguese: menir (pt) m
• Romanian: menhir (ro)
• Russian: менги́р (ru) m (mengír)
• Scottish Gaelic: tursa m
• Spanish: menhir (es) m

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Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from French menhir, from Breton maen-hir.

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

menhir m (plural menhirs, diminutive menhirtje n)

1. (archaeology) menhir

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French

Etymology

Borrowed from Breton maen-hir, from maen (“stone”) +‎ hir (“tall”) (compare Welsh maen hir, Cornish mênhere).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /me.niʁ/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

menhir m (plural menhirs)

1. (archaeology) menhir

Further reading

• “menhir” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

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Polish

menhir

Etymology

From French menhir, from Breton maen-hir, from maen (“stone”) +‎ hir (“tall”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɛn.xʲir/

Noun

menhir m inan

1. (archaeology) menhir (standing stone as a monument)

Declension

Declension of menhir

	singular	plural
nominative	menhir	menhiry
genitive	menhiru	menhirów
dative	menhirowi	menhirom
accusative	menhir	menhiry
instrumental	menhirem	menhirami
locative	menhirze	menhirach
vocative	menhirze	menhiry

Further reading

• menhir in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• menhir in Polish dictionaries at PWN

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Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French menhir, from Breton maen-hir.

Noun

menhir n (plural menhire)

1. (archaeology) menhir

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Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from French menhir, from Breton maen-hir.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /meˈniɾ/, [meˈniɾ]

Noun

menhir m (plural menhires)

1. (archaeology) menhir