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juggernaut

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Dictionary: jug·ger·naut   (jŭg'ər-nôt') pronunciation
 
n.
  1. Something, such as a belief or institution, that elicits blind and destructive devotion or to which people are ruthlessly sacrificed.
  2. An overwhelming, advancing force that crushes or seems to crush everything in its path: “It doesn't assume that people need necessarily remain passive when confronted by what appears to be the juggernaut of history” (Christopher Lehmann-Haupt).
  3. Juggernaut Used as a title for the Hindu deity Krishna.

[Hindi jagannāth, title of Krishna, from Sanskrit jagannāthaḥ, lord of the world : jagat, moving, the world (from earlier present participle of jigāti, he goes) + nāthaḥ, lord (from nāthate, he helps, protects). Senses 1 and 2, from the fact that worshipers have thrown themselves under the wheels of a huge car or wagon on which the idol of Krishna was drawn in an annual procession at Puri in east-central India.]


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WordNet: juggernaut
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Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.

The noun has one meaning:

Meaning #1: a massive inexorable force that seems to crush everything in its way
  Synonym: steamroller


 
Wikipedia: Juggernaut
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The Car of Juggernaut, as depicted in the 1851 Illustrated London Reading Book.

A juggernaut (En-us-juggernaut.ogg American pronunciation ) is a term used to describe a force regarded as unstoppable, that will crush all in its path. It is especially applied to a large machine or collectively to a team or group of people working together. In the United Kingdom, it is most commonly used as an alternative name for a large articulated lorry.

Etymology

The word is derived from the Sanskrit जगन्नाथ Jagannātha[1] (meaning "Lord of the universe") which is one of the many names of Krishna from the ancient Vedic scriptures of India. One of the most famous of Indian temples is the Jagannath Temple in Puri, Orissa, which has the Ratha Yatra ("chariot procession"), an annual procession of chariots carrying the murtis (statues) of Jagannâth (Krishna), Subhadra and Balabhadra (Krishna's elder brother). During the British colonial era, certain Englishmen promulgated a falsehood that Hindu devotees of Krishna were lunatic fanatics who threw themselves under the wheels of these chariots in order to attain salvation. Such a description can also be found in the popular 14th-century work The Travels of Sir John Mandeville. This is also described in Melmoth the Wanderer. In rare instances in the festival's past, people were crushed accidentally as the massive 45-foot-tall, multi-ton chariot slipped out of control, with others suffering injury in the resulting stampedes. This sight led the Britons of the time to contrive the word "juggernaut" to refer to examples of unstoppable, crushing forces.[citation needed]

It also has connection to drunks in the Victorian era, as the term was used to describe Hyde in Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.[2]

Notes

  1. ^ dictionary.reference.com
  2. ^ Jane Lilienfeld "Review of Thomas Reed's The Transforming Draught: Jekyll and Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson and the Victorian Alcohol debate", Victorian Studies Vol. 50 Issue 1, 2007.

 
Translations: Juggernaut
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Dansk (Danish)
n. - Jagannath

Nederlands (Dutch)
grote zware vrachtwagen, moloch, groot Krishna-beeld in processie

Français (French)
n. - (fig) force/poussée irrésistible, forces aveugles, cause/conviction pour laquelle on est sacrifié ou on se sacrifie soi-même, énorme poids lourd, semi-remorque, mastodonte

Deutsch (German)
n. - Moloch, Monster

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - μεγαθήριο, τεράστια νταλίκα

Italiano (Italian)
colosso, grande camion

Português (Portuguese)
n. - rolo (m) compressor (fig.) (força que destrói tudo à sua frente), seita (f) ou credo (m) destrutivo

Русский (Russian)
статуя Кришны, вывозимая на ежегодном праздненстве, безжалостная сила, оружие большой разрушительной силы, могущественная группа, многоосный грузовик

Español (Spanish)
n. - monstruo destructivo, fuerza irresistible

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - långtradare, jättetruck, (bildl) ångvält

中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
札格纳特, 讫里什那神像

中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 札格納特, 訖里什那神像

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 인도의 크리슈나 신상, 거대한 파괴력이 있는 것, 초대형 폭주트럭

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 圧倒的な破壊力, 長距離トラック, 不可抗力

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) اله الكون عند الهنود, قوة عارمه تبيد كل ما يعترضها‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮משאית ענקית, מפלצת דורסנית, אמונה התובעת קורבנות, כוח או עצם כלשהו גדולים מאד‬


 
 

Did you mean: juggernaut, Juggernaut (Rock Band, '80s), Cojo, Art Juggernaut, Juggernaut (comics), Juggernaut (1936 Thriller Film), Juggernaut (Star Trek: Voyager), Juggernaut (album) More...

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Copyrights:

Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
WordNet. WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Juggernaut" Read more
Translations. Copyright © 2007, WizCom Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved.  Read more

 

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