behemoth

Etymology

From Middle English behemoth, bemoth, from Late Latin behemoth, from Hebrew בְּהֵמוֹת (behemót). The Hebrew word is either: * an intensive plural of בְּהֵמָה (behemá, “beast”), from Proto-Semitic (compare Ge'ez ብህመ (bəhmä, “to be dumb, to be speechless”), Arabic ب ه م (b-h-m)), or * less likely, a borrowing of Egyptian pA-i-H-E1-mw (*pꜣ-jḥ-mw, “hippopotamus”, literally “the ox of the water”), from pꜣ (“definite article”) + jḥ (“ox, cattle”) + mw (“water”) in a direct genitive construction; for the pronunciation, compare the later Coptic descendants ⲡ- (p-) + ⲉϩⲉ (ehe) + ⲙⲟⲟⲩ (moou).

noun

1. (biblical) A great and mighty beast which God shows to Job in Job 40:15–24.
   Coordinate term: leviathan
2. (by extension) Any great and mighty monster.
   Next she doused the smouldering troll with the contents of the restaurant's fire extinguisher, hoping the icy powder wouldn't revive the sleeping behemoth. 2001, Eoin Colfer, Artemis Fowl, page 58
3. (figurative) Something which has the qualities of great power and might, and monstrous proportions.
   The diehards who did turn out were at least rewarded with a first sight of Jon Parkin, the behemoth striker signed from Preston, who scored a stunning goal on his debut at Norwich last weekend. 2011-01-18, Joe Lovejoy, “Cardiff City 0 Stoke City 2”, in Guardian Online
   The wide access corridors passed slowly, the conduits and pipes like the circulatory system of some vast planetary behemoth. 2012, James S. A. Corey, Gods of Risk
   We are the workers who built Alphabet. We write code, clean offices, serve food, drive buses, test self-driving cars and do everything needed to keep this behemoth running. 2021-01-04, Parul Koul, Chewy Shaw, “We Built Google. This Is Not the Company We Want to Work For.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
   Hiei now loomed into the action, causing the leading U.S. destroyers to scatter before the oncoming behemoth lest they be run down. 10 March 2021, Drachinifel, 14:35 from the start, in Guadalcanal Campaign - The Big Night Battle: Night 1 (IJN 3(?) : 2 USN), archived from the original on 2022-10-17