EXAMPLES FROM THE WEB FOR MARTYR
The martyr's crown awaits them, for they display the martyr's spirit.
I must not make a martyr of myself, when I am one of so large a company.'
I found it in this cell, after the death of the martyr, and have preserved it as a relic.
She had beheld the Virgin, she was the chosen one, the martyr.
At bottom he is simply a martyr who has followed the wrong track.
He was the first to martyr of the war, and he ought to have a monument.
But assuredly free woman will have to yield up her martyr's crown.
Bunyan had suffered as a martyr; but it was as a martyr for truth, not for general licence.
After the role of deliverer, that of martyr was not to be despised.
When Mr. Hammond did come down to breakfast his manner was that of a martyr.
WORD ORIGIN
Old English martyr, from Late Latin martyr, from Doric Greek martyr, earlier martys (genitive martyros) in Christian use "martyr," literally "witness," probably related to mermera "care, trouble," from mermairein "be anxious or thoughtful," from PIE *(s)mrtu- (cf. Sanskrit smarati "remember," Latin memor "mindful;" see memory).
Adopted directly into most Germanic languages, but Norse substituted native formation pislarvattr, literally "torture-witness." General sense of "constant sufferer" is from 1550s. Martyr complex "exaggerated desire for self-sacrifice" is attested from 1920.