leviathan
\ li-VAHY-uh-thuhn \ , noun;
1.anything of immense size and power, as a huge, oceangoing ship.
2.( often initial capital letter ) Bible . a sea monster.
3.any huge marine animal, as the whale.
4.( initial capital letter, italics ) a philosophical work (1651) by Thomas Hobbes dealing with the political organization of society.
Quotes:
But curiously, for all the series’s influence in shaping and reflecting the leviathan of "theory" on American campuses, Benjamin is a conspicuous absence among the wealth of titles.
-- Eric Banks, "Walter Benjamin's Afterlife," The Chronicle of Higher Education , 2014
This 2000-strong bureaucratic leviathan allocates its budgets through the various ministries.
-- Misha Glenny, "Science waxes and wanes in Gorbachov's age of reform," New Scientist , 1988
Origin:
Leviathan entered English in the late 1300s as a word for a giant sea monster. It finds its roots in the Hebrew liwyāthān .
Dictionary.com
