victimary

victimary noun: a person whose role it is to kill the sacrificial victim(s) during a ritual sacrifice.

Noun

victimary (plural victimaries)

(historical) A person whose role it is to kill the sacrificial victim(s) during a ritual sacrifice.
- Two of the ministri support a pole or brancard, from which hangs a situla (pail with handles); a third has charge of a huge ox, over whose head floats a bird like Progne; whilst a victimary drags by the horns a goat, sacred to Mars.1876, Richard Francis Burton, Etruscan Bologna: A Study, London: Smith, Elder & Co., page 43

victimary (comparative more victimary, superlative most victimary)

(rare) Relating to victim(s) or victimhood.
- Ansay reinserts the victim at the heart of what the violence of independence can signify: the second part of the text leaves behind the revolutionary government's processes of self-construction and represents the experience of independence exclusively from this victimary perspective.2022, Catriona McAllister, Literary Reimaginings of Argentina's Independence: History, Fiction, Politics, Liverpool, Merseyside: Liverpool University Press, page 42

Borrowed from Middle French victimaire, from Latin victimārius, from victima + -ārius.

From victim + -ary.

What does victimary mean?: Victimary means a person whose role it is to kill the sacrificial victim(s) during a ritual sacrifice.
What part of speech is victimary?: Victimary can be a noun or an adjective.
What is the plural of victimary?: The plural of victimary is victimaries.

Adapted from Wiktionary: victimary (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “victimary.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/victimary. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.