Why this word is great
PROTOMARTYR — [Noun] The first person to die for a specific faith or cause, most famously Saint Stephen, the first Christian martyr. From Middle English prothomartir, from Middle French prothomartir and Medieval Latin prōtomartyr, from Koine Greek πρωτομάρτυς (prōtomártus), from πρῶτος (prôtos, "first") + μάρτυς (mártus, "witness, martyr"). Unlike the general "martyr" (any such sacrifice) or the historical "confessor" (one who suffers but does not die), the protomartyr is the inaugural, archetypal victim. It is the first stone cast in a grim avalanche, the initial bloodstain on a nascent creed’s robe, the founding member of a fellowship no one sought to join—the lonely precedent that irrevocably converts belief into a currency payable in flesh.