legend
Plurallegends
Plurallegends
Formslegends, legending, legended
- 1A person who is extremely famous or has achieved remarkable things.
She is regarded as a legend in the world of jazz.
Few athletes ever reach the status of a true legend.
Similaricon, giant, luminary, great, star
Note
Here the hero steps out of the story into real life. A person becomes famous enough to be spoken of the way the hero of a legend is. The word usually takes in plus a field: a legend in basketball, a legend in cricket, a legend in the world of jazz. It is high praise, and it suggests a reputation that has grown larger than any single achievement.
- 2A traditional story of unknown origin describing plausible but extraordinary events from the past.
According to legend, a great city once stood beneath the sea.
Historians debate whether the legend grew out of a real shipwreck.
Similarmyth
Note
Myth is its nearest synonym, but a legend stays plausible: its events are extraordinary rather than impossible, and it can even turn out to be true. The legend of Troy was found to have a historical basis. The word began as Latin legenda, "things to be read," the readings of a saint's life, before widening to any tale whose origin is lost.
- 3A key explaining the symbols and color codes used on a map, chart, or diagram.
The cartographer placed the legend in the lower corner of the map.
Without a legend, the colored regions on the chart were impossible to interpret.
Note
On a map or chart, the legend is the part you read so that the rest makes sense, which fits the word's root in "things to be read." Key is the everyday equivalent, and guide is a looser one. The usual construction is according to the legend: according to the legend on the map, that building is a school.
- 4A thoroughly likable, kind, or helpful person, especially a man, spoken of with warm admiration.
He bought drinks for the whole team. Absolute legend.
Cheers, mate, you're a legend for sorting that out.
Note
Praise shrunk to everyday size. In slang across the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, anyone who lends a pen or buys a round can be a legend. It is most at home as a thank-you said straight to the person ("You legend") or as an exclamation like "absolute legend." It belongs among friends, not in formal writing. Brick pays the same compliment, and the grand sense stays with the famous-person meaning.
- 5Traditional, unverified tales considered together as a single body of handed-down stories.
The region is rich in legend, with tales of sea serpents and lost cities.
Scholars carefully separate documented fact from legend when studying ancient kings.
Similarfolklore, myth, lore, mythology, tradition
Note
This is the mass-noun use, and it drops the article: according to legend, rich in legend, ancient legend. Add a or the and the word turns back into a single traditional story. Without an article it means the whole stock of such tales. Harry E. Wedeck's Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs (1961) uses it this way when it reports what ancient legend claims about saffron.
- 6
- 7A story built on a small core of truth that has been exaggerated to an improbable degree.
His one lucky shot became a legend, retold with ever-wilder details.
A mild winter storm slowly grew into a legend of record-breaking blizzards.
Similarmyth
- 8A written account of the life of a saint.
The medieval legend of Saint Francis describes his sermon to the birds.
Pilgrims gathered to hear the legend of the local martyr each year.
Similarhagiography
Note
The word's oldest sense, and its history explains it. Medieval Latin legenda meant a story, especially the lives of the saints. It came from Latin legenda, "things which ought to be read," and that from lego, "I read." Here legend implies no falsehood. An embellished saint's life and a sober one are both legends, and the plural, as in the legends of the martyrs, can name the whole genre.
- 9A fabricated backstory created for a spy, complete with supporting documents and records.
The handler built the operative a legend as a freelance journalist.
Her legend held up until a customs officer noticed the forged stamp.
Note
In spy tradecraft, a legend is a whole invented life, not just a false name. Ronald Kessler's Inside the CIA (1992) describes a "light legend," a superficial cover story whose documents would not check out if anyone called to verify them. The agents' legends in Curtis Peebles's Twilight Warriors (2005) had to survive casual questions and routine police checks. Agents develop or build a legend, and cover story is its plainer synonym.
- 10An inscription, motto, or title, especially one running around a coin or medal, set on a heraldic shield, or placed beneath an engraving.
The legend encircling the coin named the reigning emperor.
A short Latin legend ran beneath the engraved portrait.
Similarinscription
Note
On coins and medals, the legend is the lettering, as distinct from the face or design it surrounds. Gene Wolfe's The Urth of the New Sun (1987) keeps the two apart when ancient coins have lost "their legends, like their faces." The word also stretches to any lettering painted on an object. Its typical verb is bear: milk-floats bearing the legend "Lord Rayleigh's Dairies." Inscription is the general synonym.
- 11The central hero or leading character in a historical legend.
In the saga, the legend is a warrior who unites the scattered tribes.
Folk ballads cast the outlaw as the legend whose deeds defy the king.
Similarhero
- 12A musical composition based on or set to a poetic narrative.
The orchestra performed a romantic legend inspired by an old ballad.
Wieniawski's legend for violin captures the sorrow of its poetic source.
- 13The design and full specification of a ship or vessel.
The Admiralty approved the legend before construction of the warship began.
Changes to the engine room meant the legend had to be redrawn.
Similarspecification, design
Note
In naval design, the legend is the official statement of a ship's specified figures, submitted for approval alongside the sketch designs. It also works as a modifier. The Journal of the American Society of Naval Engineers (1929) gives a "legend displacement" of 48,000 tons against a standard displacement of 47,540 tons under the Washington Treaty, so the legend figure is the design's own figure, not the treaty measure.
- 14To tell, narrate, or recount a story.
The minstrels legend the king's victories in songs carried from town to town.
Nor ladie's wanton love , nor wand'ring knight, Legend I out in rymes all richly dight
1597, [Joseph Hall], VirgidemiarumNote
This verb is now archaic. Joseph Hall's Virgidemiarum (1597) uses it with out: "Legend I out in rymes all richly dight." It is transitive and regular (legends, legending, legended). Today it reads as deliberate archaism, so outside pastiche or period verse, tell, narrate or recount does the job.
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Origin
From Middle English legende, from Old French legende, from Medieval Latin legenda meaning "a story, especially the lives of the saints." This came from Latin legenda, "things which ought to be read," from lego, "I read."