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Origin and history of telethon

telethon(n.)

prolonged TV fundraiser, 1949, from tele- "television" + ending from marathon (see -athon). Milton Berle's celebrity-studded 16-hour television cancer fundraiser April 9, 1949, seems to have been the first so called.

also from 1949

Entries linking to telethon

marathon(n.)

1896, in marathon race, "long-distance foot-race of 26 miles, 385 yards," named for the town of Marathōn, in Attica, site of a famous battle in antiquity. The place-name is literally "fennel-field, fennel" (Greek), probably so called because the herb grew nearby. It is a word of uncertain etymology; Beekes writes, "For a plant name, foreign origin is suspected."

The foot-race was introduced as an athletic event in the 1896 revival of the Olympic Games. It is based on the story of the Greek hero Pheidippides, who in 490 B.C.E. ran to Athens from the Plains of Marathon to tell of the allied Greek victory there over Persian army.

The oldest form of the story (Herodotus) tells that he ran from Athens to Sparta to seek aid, which arrived too late to participate in the battle (but approved the tactics). The 1896 Olympics chose a later story, less likely but more dramatic, that Pheidippides ran to Athens from the battlefield with the good news.

The 1896 course began in the town of Marathon and finished in Athens' Panathenaic Stadium; the precise distance of the race fluctuated until after 1924.

From the distance-race, the word was extended generally to mean "any very long event or activity," such as marathon dance (1910). Related: Marathoner (by 1912); Marathonian.

-athon

also -thon, a word-forming element, denoting prolonged activity and usually some measure of endurance, abstracted from marathon (q.v.). Examples include walkathon (1931), skatathon (1933); talkathon (1934); telethon (1949); swimathon (1968).

tele-

before vowels properly tel-, word-forming element of Greek origin meaning "far, far off, operating over distance," from Greek tēle "far off, afar, at or to a distance," related to teleos (genitive telos) "end, goal, completion, result" (from PIE root *kwel- (2) "far" in space or time).

The element also could mean "telegraph" by mid-19c. (teleprinter); "telephone" by late 19c. (telecopier), "television" by 1928 (tele-talkie, "motion picture broadcast by television"); and "by electronic means" by 1981 (teleshopping, originally hypothetical).

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    quarry
    [what is hunted] early 14c., quirre "entrails of deer placed on the hide and given to dogs of the chase as a reward," from Anglo-French quirreie, Old French cuiriee "the spoil, quarry" (Modern French curée), altered (by influence of Old French cuir "skin," from Latin corium "hide
    gringo
    term for a European or Anglo-American, 1847, from American Spanish gringo "foreigner," from Spanish gringo "foreign speech, unintelligible talk, gibberish," perhaps ultimately from griego "Greek." The "Diccionario Castellano" (1787) says gringo was used in Malaga for "anyone who
    pistachio
    1590s, "nut of the pistachio tree," from Italian pistacchio, from Latin pistacium "pistachio nut," from Greek pistakion "pistachio nut," from pistakē "pistachio tree," from Persian pistah "pistachio." Borrowed earlier in English as pystace, pistace (mid-15c.), from Old French pis
    alchemy
    "medieval chemistry; the supposed science of transmutation of base metals into silver or gold" (involving also the quest for the universal solvent, quintessence, etc.), mid-14c., from Old French alchimie (14c.), alquemie (13c.), from Medieval Latin alkimia, from Arabic al-kimiya,
    etiquette
    1750, from French étiquette "prescribed behavior," from Old French estiquette "label, ticket" (see ticket (n.)). The sense development in French perhaps is from small cards written or printed with instructions for how to behave properly at court (compare Italian etichetta, Spanis
    ether
    late 14c., "upper regions of space," from Old French ether (12c.) and directly from Latin aether "the upper pure, bright air; sky, firmament," from Greek aithēr "upper air; bright, purer air; the sky" (opposed to aēr "the lower air"), from aithein "to burn, shine," from PIE *aidh
    iris
    late 14c. as the name of a flowering plant (Iris germanica); early 15c. in reference to the eye membrane, from Latin iris (plural irides) "iris of the eye; iris plant; rainbow," from Greek iris (genitive iridos) "a rainbow;" also "iris plant" and "iris of the eye," a word of unce
    stamp
    Middle English stampen "pound, mash, beat, crush," from Old English stempan "to pound, crush, or bruise in or as in a mortar," from Proto-Germanic *stamp- (source also of Old Norse stappa, Danish stampe, Middle Dutch stampen, Old High German stampfon, German stampfen "to stamp wi
    grail
    c. 1300, gral, "the Holy Grail," from Old French graal, greal "Holy Grail; cup," earlier "large shallow dish, basin," from Medieval Latin gradalis, also gradale, grasale, "a flat dish or shallow vessel." The original form is uncertain; the word is perhaps ultimately from Latin cr
    sin
    Middle English sinne, from Old English synn, syn "violation of divine law, offense against God; moral wrongdoing," also "injury, mischief; enmity, feud; guilt, crime, misdeed," from Proto-Germanic *sundiō "sin" (source also of Old Saxon sundia, Old Frisian sende, Middle Dutch son

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