monolith

Etymology

It is borrowed from French monolithe,^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} which was first an adjective, monolythe, "made of a single stone", in Middle French in 1532 and rare before the 19th century, and a noun from 1813;^[2] the OED takes it partly also directly borrowed from Latin monolithus (“made of a single stone”).^[2] The Latin word is from Ancient Greek μονόλιθος (monólithos, “made of one stone”),^[2][4][8] formed from μόνος (mónos, “alone, single”) and λίθος (líthos, “stone”).^[8][9][4] Etymonline traces the first part to Proto-Indo-European *men- (“small, isolated”).^[4] English had monolithic (1825) and monolithal (1830) a little earlier, and an English text of 1827 already uses a Greek plural of the word.^[5][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

As an adjective, formed of a single block of stone: 1832, in George Long's Egyptian Antiquities.^[2] The noun, a single large block of stone shaped into a pillar or monument, follows in 1836.^[2][6] Etymonline dates the noun to 1829, Merriam-Webster to 1844, Barnhart to 1848,^[4][10][5] and Dictionary.com to 1820–30.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The word first named a single great block of stone shaped into a pillar or monument, often in prehistoric times, such as an obelisk or column.^[2][6] Engineers took the word over in 1878 for a large solid block of concrete sunk in water as a foundation for a harbour or dock wall.^[2][12] A figurative use for anything massive, immovable or uniform is recorded from 1880, in Mark Twain's A Tramp Abroad,^[2] and later grew into "a large, impersonal political or corporate body".^[2][6] The 1989 edition of the OED, which dated this use to 1934, explained it as partly modelled on a Russian word;^[13] Barnhart finds the sense of a rigid political state or party first in Auden's Another Time (1940), perhaps suggested by the earlier figurative use of monolithic.^[5] Mapping Metaphor places it among the words that describe wholeness in terms of materials, since the early 20th century.^[14]

Timeline

• 1832 – adjective, formed of a single block of stone.^[2]
• 1836 – noun, a single large block of stone, especially one shaped into a pillar or monument.^[2][6]
• 1878 – in engineering, a large solid block of concrete sunk in water as a foundation.^[2]
• 1880 – something massive, immovable or uniform; later a large impersonal organization.^[2] Etymonline dates this use to 1934.^[4]
• 1922 – adjective, figuratively, massive, immovable.^[2]
• 1940 – a rigid, unyielding political state or party.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A single large block of stone, especially one shaped into a pillar, obelisk or monument: A ring of monoliths stood on the hilltop.^{[6][15][16][2]}
2. A column, statue or other monument cut from one block of stone.^[16][15]
3. Something massive, uniform and hard to move or change, especially a large, impersonal political, social or business organization: the old state-owned monolith.^{[6][15][16][2]}
4. (engineering) A large block of concrete sunk in water, or cast in place, as a foundation or as part of a dam.^[2][15][6]

Adjective

1. Monolithic; made of a single block of stone.^[6][2]

Word family

• monolithism
• monolithic

Related words

• megalith
• microlith
• lithograph
• lithium
• Neolithic
• Paleolithic
• monad

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
12. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ Mapping Metaphor with the Historical Thesaurus, University of Glasgow, mappingmetaphor.arts.gla.ac.uk
15. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
16. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin