英和和英

発音

• (英国発音) IPA: /ˈmɜː.mɪˌdɒn/, /ˈmɜː.mɪ.dən/
• (米国発音) IPA: /ˈmɝ.mɪˌdɑn/, /ˈmɝ.mɪ.dən/

名詞

myrmidon (plural myrmidons)

1. A soldier or a subordinate civil officer who executes orders of a superior without protest or pity (sometimes applied to bailiffs, constables, etc).

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:loyal follower

   • 1819 July 15, [Lord Byron], Don Juan, London: […] Thomas Davison, […], →OCLC, canto I, stanza CLIX, page 82:

     Antonia bustled round the ransack'd room, / And, turning up her nose, with looks abused / Her master, and his myrmidons, of whom / Not one, except the attorney, was amused; […]

   • 1847, George Dibdin Pitt, The String of Pearls; or, The Fiend of Fleet Street (play), act III, scene II:

     Tobias (to Jonas Fogg, manager of a madhouse): "I will die ere I submit to you or your vile myrmidons."

   • 1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, chapter XII, in Great Expectations […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published October 1861, →OCLC, page 197:

     When the day came round for my return to the scene of the deed of violence, my terrors reached their height. Whether myrmidons of Justice, especially sent down from London, would be lying in ambush behind the gate; […]

   • 1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:

     He cared no more for the Devil and all his myrmidons, for he kenned brawly he was damned.

   • 1912, Alexander Berkman, chapter 6, in Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist:

     My heart wells up in admiration of the man, as I think of his participation in the memorable struggle of Homestead. He fought the Pinkertons, the myrmidons of Capital.

   • 1934, Rex Stout, Fer-de-Lance, Bantam edition, published 1992, →ISBN, pages 177–178:

     […] headed for a revelation to the District Attorney that would probably result in my having the pleasure of meeting H. R. Corbett or some other flatfooted myrmidon […]

派生語

• myrmidonian

参考

• catchpole, catchpoll

参照