holocaust: [13] Etymologically, a holocaust is a ‘complete burning’, and the word was originally used in English for a ‘burnt offering’, a ‘sacrifice completely consumed by fire’ (Mark 12, 33, ‘more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices’ in the Authorized Version, was translated by William Tindale in 1526 as ‘a greater thing than all holocausts and sacrifices’).
It comes via Old French and Latin from Greek holókauston, a compound formed from hólos ‘whole’ (as in English holograph [17] and holism [20], a coinage of the South African statesman Jan Smuts) and kaustós, a relative of Greek kaúein ‘burn’ (from which English gets caustic [14] and cauterize [14]). John Milton was the first English writer to use the word in the wider sense ‘complete destruction by fire’, in the late 17th century, and in the succeeding centuries several precedents were set for its modern application to ‘nuclear destruction’ and ‘mass murder’ – Bishop Ken, for instance, wrote in 1711 ‘Should general Flame this World consume … An Holocaust for Fontal Sin’, and Leitch Ritchie in Wanderings by the Loire 1833 refers to Louis VII making ‘a holocaust of thirteen hundred persons in a church’. => caustic, cauterize, holism
holocaust (n.)
mid-13c., "sacrifice by fire, burnt offering," from Greek holokauston "a thing wholly burnt," neuter of holokaustos "burned whole," from holos "whole" (see holo-) + kaustos, verbal adjective of kaiein "to burn." Originally a Bible word for "burnt offerings," given wider sense of "massacre, destruction of a large number of persons" from 1833. The Holocaust "Nazi genocide of European Jews in World War II," first recorded 1957, earlier known in Hebrew as Shoah "catastrophe." The word itself was used in English in reference to Hitler's Jewish policies from 1942, but not as a proper name for them.
Auschwitz makes all too clear the principle that the human psyche can create meaning out of anything. [Robert Jay Lifton, "The Nazi Doctors"]
实用例句
1. The Auschwitz concentration camp always remind the world of the holocaust.
奥辛威茨集中营总是让世人想起大屠杀.
来自《简明英汉词典》
2. Viewing this holocaust , they gave up any hope of living.
看见这个奇异的景象, 众人对自己的命运不能够再有丝毫的疑惑了.
来自汉英文学 - 家（1-26） - 家（1-26）
3. A nuclear holocaust seemed a very real possibility in the 1950s.
核灾难在20世纪50年代似乎真的非常可能发生。
来自辞典例句
4. It is unthinkable that we shall allow a nuclear holocaust to occur.
我们若竟让核武器大屠杀的惨剧发生，简直是匪夷所思。
来自辞典例句
5. A nuclear holocaust seemed a very real possibility in the '50s.
