different between walkathon vs marathon

English

Etymology

From walk +? -athon.

Noun

walkathon (plural walkathons)

1. A long-distance walk, either as a race or in aid of charity.
   • 1949, Nelson Algren, The Man with the Golden Arm:

     [In 1946.] Some tattered walkathon tune of the early thirties went banging like a one-wheeled Good Humor cart of those same years through his head as the cards slipped mechanically about the board and his fingers went lightly dividing change in the middle, taking the house's percentage without making the winner too sharply aware of the cut.

English

Etymology

From French marathon, coined in 1894 by linguist Michel Bréal for the first modern time Olympic Games after Ancient Greek ??????? (Marath?n), a town northeast of Athens. Phidippides the Greek ran the distance from Marathon to Athens to deliver a message regarding the Battle of Marathon. The modern sport of marathon running is based on a run approximately the same distance. The toponym itself comes from ??????? (márathon, “fennel”) and refers to the prevalence of the plant in the area.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?mæ????n/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?mæ?????n/, /?m??????n/
• Hyphenation: mar?a?thon

Noun

marathon (plural marathons)

1. A 42.195 kilometre (26 mile 385 yard) road race.
2. (figuratively, by extension) Any extended or sustained activity.

   He had a cleaning marathon the night before his girlfriend came over.

Derived terms

• -athon
• marathoner
• half marathon
• ultramarathon

Translations

Verb

marathon (third-person singular simple present marathons, present participle marathoning, simple past and past participle marathoned)

1. To run a marathon.
2. (informal, transitive) To watch or read a large number of instalments of (a film, book, TV series, etc.) in one sitting.

   We're going to marathon Star Trek next weekend.

References

Dutch

Pronunciation

Noun

marathon m (plural marathons, diminutive marathonnetje n)

1. marathon

French

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ??????? (Marath?n)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ma.?a.t??/

Noun

marathon m (plural marathons)

1. marathon

Derived terms

• marathonien

Further reading

• “marathon” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).