victory

Definition

The condition or state of having won a battle or competition, or having succeeded in an effort; (countable) an instance of this.

Etymology

The noun is derived from Middle English victory, victori, victorie (“supremacy, victory; a defeat or vanquishing, conquest; superior military force; might, power, strength; triumphal celebration or procession; monument commemorating a defeat; superior position, dominance; mastery; moral victory, vindication; success, triumph; redemption, salvation; resurrection of Jesus; means of achieving spiritual victory; reward for or token of perseverance in a spiritual struggle”) [and other forms], borrowed from Anglo-Norman victorie and Old French victorie, a variant of victoire (“victory, win”) (modern French victoire), from Latin victōria (“victory”), from victor (“champion, winner, victor; conqueror, vanquisher”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *weyk- (“to contain, envelop; to overcome”)) + -ia (suffix forming feminine abstract nouns). The English word is analysable as victor + -y (suffix forming abstract nouns denoting a condition, quality, or state), and displaced Middle English siȝe, sye. The interjection is derived from the noun. Cognates Cognate with French victoire, Italian vittoria, Portuguese vitoria, Spanish victoria, Romanian victorie. Tamil வெற்றி (veṟṟi) (pronounced roughly like "vetri") is a false cognate.

Example Sentences

• "It was a great victory on the battlefield."
• "I behelde, and the ſame horne made battail agaynſt the ſayntes, yee ãd gat the victory off them: […]"
• "Hieronimo, it greatly pleaſeth vs, / That in our victorie thou haue a ſhare, / By vertue of thy vvorthy Sonnes exployt."

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