A captain or leader with an obsessive quest for revenge or a specific goal, often named after the Biblical king Ahab; can also mean an obsessive person willing to destroy themselves chasing a goal.
From King Ahab in the Hebrew Bible, a 9th-century B.C. monarch who ruled Israel. The character became famous through Melville's 1851 novel 'Moby-Dick,' where Captain Ahab hunts a white whale, giving the name its modern meaning of obsessive pursuit.
Herman Melville chose the name Ahab for his whale-hunting captain to instantly tell readers that this man was doomed by his own obsession—just like the Biblical king was! One fictional character changed how we describe obsessive people forever.
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