Summer Finding

1985 The Wisdom of the Runes, Michael Howard, Rider & Company, →ISBN, page 133.
Summer Finding.

1989 A Book of Troth, Eldred Thorsson, Llewellyn Publications, →ISBN, page 54.
The tide of the spring fetival, Easter, is rekoned as mentioned above - the first full Moon after the spring equinox, or Summer Finding.

2006 Everything you need to know about Paganism, Selene Silverwind, David & Charles, →ISBN, page 104.
Other names for Summer Finding are Ostara and Easter.

(Germanic paganism) A festival celebrated in Heathenry which marks the beginning of spring, held on the spring equinox.


Elisheba

Borrowed from Hebrew אלישבע (“the Lord is her oath”). Doublet of Elizabeth.

bor+

(biblical) The wife of Aaron, mentioned in Exodus 6:23.


Macedonianism

Macedonians (religious group)
Macedonius I of Constantinople

From Macedonian + -ism, the heresy name from Bishop Macedonius I of Constantinople.

(Christianity, historical) A fourth-century Christian heresy that denied the full personality and divinity of the Holy Spirit (also called Pneumatomachi).


hex sign

Compound of hex + sign, coined in English.

(Germanic paganism) A protective symbol used in Heathenry comprising a six-petaled flower or star set within a circle, as a New Age adaptation of the above.


trefot

1984 Futharc A Handbook of Runic Magic, Eldred Thorson, Weser, →ISBN, page 108.
Trefot - dynamic power from the three realms of being and the threefold evolutionary force.

1993 Our Troth, by the Ring of Troth and other true folk, The Ring of Troth, →ISBN, page 668.
Trefot - also called triskelion (swirling form).

1997 Theod Volume IV Number 1 (Heathen Journal), Two Charms Against Dwarves, Eric Lord Wodening.
If so we can be assured that the crosses were substituted for some heathen symbol, valkntR, trefot or fylfot.

(Germanic paganism) A three-armed spiral symbol used in Heathenry to represent the god Woden or the Norns.


Asafolk

The first element is cognate to the first element of Ásatrú, and derives from Old Norse or Icelandic áss (“god”). The second element is folk.

All Asatru organizations, publications, independent kindreds, and just plain Asafolk are asked to take part.

1996, Lina, Ostara, volume 1, issue 4 (Heathen Journal), An Open Message to All Asafolk

Gamlinginn claims pines have spiritual significance for Asafolk.

1997, Lina, volume 2, issue 4 (Heathen Journal), Second Annual Yggdrasil Day (Charles Spratling)

Most Asafolk seem to have the attitude 'I found the gods, and I'm better off for it.'

1998, Lina, volume 4, issue 2 (Heathen Journal), News and Announcements (Dave Haxton)

(uncommon, modern Germanic paganism) Followers of Heathenry.


Ases' Garth

1993 Our Troth, the Ring of Troth and other true folk, →ISBN, page 262.
There are nine worlds: the Ases' Garth (or God Home), Light Alf-Home, the Middle-Garth (Middenerd, Middle-Earth, or Man Home), Nibel-Home, Etin Home, Muspell-Home, Wan-Home, Swart Alf-Home, and Hel-Home (which also includes Niflhel), Misty-Dark Hel, a lower realm into which, according to Vafthrudnismal, men die out of Hel.

1997 Teutonic Religion, Kveldulf Gundarsson, Llewellyn Publications, →ISBN, page 10.
Ases' Garth

1997 Lina Volume 3, Issue 2 (Heathen Journal), Love Songs for Sif and Thor, Winifred Hodge.
My Sif, Even the wide plains, Even Middle Garth's broad reaches, Even Ase's Garth itself Cannot hold our love enclosed.


Earth Mother

In the ancient myth of Demeter and Persephone - which has been adopted by so many peoples under so many forms - Demeter the Earth-mother loses her daughter Persephone (who represents of course the Vegetation), carried down into the underworld by the evil powers of Darkness and Winter.

1920, Edward Carpenter, Pagan and Christian Creeds, New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., published 1921, page 73:

Taking this somewhat tenuous line of reasoning one step further, it might be suggested that witches sought enlightenment and contact with the Earth Mother and Sky Father through group activities, while wizards tended towards shamanistic methods and techniques.

1994, Tony Linsell, Anglo-Saxon Mythology, Migration & Magic, Anglo-Saxon,, →ISBN, page 165:

His mother is Jord (the Earth Mother), his foster mother is Hlora, his step mother is Frigg, his wife is Sif, his mistress is the giantess Jarnsaxa and his daughter is Thrud (one of the valkyries).

1997, Thorskegga Thorn, "Thor and the Goddesses", Thunder, issue 2 (Heathen Journal)

The following scheme further interprest the 'Skyfather(s)' - Earthmother(s) cosmology, drawing on our previous discussion of cosmogony and cosmology.

2000, Nathan J. Johnson, Robert J. Wallis, Galdrbok, The Wykeham Press,, →ISBN, page 193:

(paganism, archaeology) The Great Goddess of the Earth and fertility.


Narayana

A male given name from Sanskrit used in India.


Agni

(Hinduism) A Hindu and Vedic deity of fire.


Euphrosyne

Translingual: Euphrosyne

From Ancient Greek Εὐφροσύνη (Euphrosúnē).

(Greek mythology) One of the three Charites and the goddess of joy.


lustrate

en-verb

lustrate (third-person singular simple present lustrates, present participle lustrating, simple past and past participle lustrated)

lustrates (present singular third-person)
lustrating (participle present)
lustrated (participle past)
lustrated (past)

From Latin lustrātus (“lustrated”), perfect passive participle of lustrō (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from lustrum (“ritual purification”) + -ō (first conjugation verb-forming suffix), q.v. In reference to imparting luster, further via senses of Middle French lustre, from Old Italian lustro.

af

We must purge, and cleanse, and lustrate the whole city.

c. 1650, Henry Hammond, Miscellaneous Theological Works..., Vol. 3, Sermon 23, p. 503 (1850 ed.)

"Well," said Hypatia, more and more listlessly; "it might be more prudent to show them first the fairer and more graceful side of the old Myths... I wish to lustrate them afresh for the service of the gods."

1853, Charles Kingsley, chapter 20, in Hypatia:

Mid-zenith hangs the fascinated day
In wind-lustrated hollows crystalline.

1909, Edith Wharton, “An Autumn Sunset”, in Artemis to Actaeon and Other Poems:

(transitive) Synonym of purify, to ritually cleanse or renew, particularly to do so with a propitiatory offering or (historical) the lustration, quinquennial ritual of the Roman censor to cleanse the city after a census.


Eurydice

From Latin Eurydicē, from Ancient Greek Εὐρυδίκη (Eurudíkē).

(Greek mythology) A nymph and the wife of Orpheus.


Mother Earth

[P]igs and sows by their exceeding fruitfulness would in their hour of sacrifice remind old mother Earth of what was expected from her!

(religion) The goddess of the earth in various cultures.


Erebus

From Latin Erebus. Doublet of rajas.
[Alt: Mount Erebus]

Nay, were he Deul, as he is no man,
Yet in reuenge of faire Zenocrate,
UUhome he detayneth in deſpight of vs,
This arme ſhould ſend him downe to Erebus,
To ſhroud his ſhame in darkneſſe of the night.

c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act IIII, scene i:

(Greek mythology) The dark and gloomy cavern between the earth and Hades; the underworld.


proposant

(religion, historical) A theological student who performs religious functions.


King James Version

/ˌkɪŋ ˈdʒeɪmz ˌvɜː.ʃən/

/ˌkɪŋ ˈdʒeɪmz ˌvɜː.ʒən/

/ˌkɪŋ ˈdʒeɪmz ˌvɝː.ʒən/

/ˌkɪŋ ˈdʒeɪmz ˌvɝː.ʃən/

Named for James I of England (James VI of Scotland), who authorized the production of a new English translation of the Bible.

[...], and of course the Bible, the men who wrote it and especially the men who made the King James version, for it was the language of the Bible rather than its "message" which I got first and which I will never shake off.

a. 1964, Henry Miller, “The Books in My Life”, in Henry Miller on Writing, page 125:

a. 1998, Jeffrey M. Perl, Common Knowledge, quoted in front material, Homer, Robert Fagles (translator), The Iliad, page i
"Fagles' Homer, Sophocles, and especially Aeschylus may one day stand relation to their originals as the King James Version to Greek and Hebrew Scripture."

The Catholic priest would have been surprised that the old shaman had memorized the King James version of this song.

1999, James D. Doss, The Shaman's Game, page 119:

She thought for a moment, trying to remember; then she told him, "twenty-third Psalm, King James version," as best she recalled.

2004, R. Garcia y Robertson, Lady Robyn, page 320:

It pained him to tell the story, yet tell it he did, over and over, in the unabridged, King James version.

2005, Michael Kun, You Poor Monster, page 19:

A Bible, King James Version. (This he stuck in his bag, because anybody who knows anything about English literature knows you can't ger away from the Bible.)

2005, Catherine Landis, Harvest, page 54:

(biblical, Christianity) An English translation, published in 1611, of the Bible from the original Hebrew (Old Testament) and Greek (New Testament) commissioned for the Church of England, which is the version most quoted and influential in English literature and English Protestant religious culture.


duppy

Jamaica, circa 18th century. From Bube dupe (“ghost”) (compare Akan adɔpe).

(Jamaica, games) A drawn game of noughts and crosses (in Jamaica tii-taa-tuo).


Gomorrah

From Ancient Greek Γόμορρᾰ (Gómorrha), from Biblical Hebrew עֲמֹרָה (ʿămōrā).

(biblical, Quranic) A city in the Middle East which, according to the Hebrew Bible and to Islamic tradition, was destroyed by God (along with Sodom) for the sins of its inhabitants.


Marist

From French Mariste, from Marie (“Mary”) + -iste (“-ist”).

A member of any of several Roman Catholic organizations named after the Virgin Mary


Ahasuerus

From Hebrew אֲחַשְׁוֵרוֹשׁ (Akhashverósh) from Old Persian 𐎧𐏁𐎹𐎠𐎼𐏁𐎠 (x-š-y-a-r-š-a /xšayāršā/, “ruler among kings”). Cognates include Xerxes from Ancient Greek Ξέρξης (Xérxēs), from the same Old Persian name.

bor

אֲחַשְׁוֵרוֹשׁ


Adah

From Hebrew עָדָה (adá, “Adah”, literally “ornament, dawn”).


Muspell

Borrowed from Old Norse Muspell. The ultimate origin is disputed, but one suggestion includes Latin mundus (“world”) + Proto-Germanic *spilþijaną (“to kill, ruin, murder”), thus meaning "destruction of the world." More at Muspilli.
Cognates include Old Saxon mūdspelli, Old High German muspilli. More at spill.

At the beginning of time there was Muspell, which was the realm of Fire.

2003, Kim Farnell, Reading the Runes, A Beginner's Guide, Zambezi Publishing, →ISBN, page 21:

Certainly the encounter between the cold of Niflheim and the fires of Muspel suggests the chemical reactions that led to the evolution of the planetary surface and its atmosphere.

2005, Diana Paxson, Taking Up the Runes, Weiser Books, →ISBN, page 323:

(Norse mythology and Germanic paganism) The primordial realm of fire which existed to the south of Ginnungagap.


supernature

en-noun

supernature (countable and uncountable, plural supernatures)

/ˈsuːpəˌneɪt͡ʃə/

/ˌsuːpəˈneɪt͡ʃə/

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-supernature.wav

It is the most commont and grossest blunders of scientific diminutives, to imagine that all in nature is of nature. There are more excellent natures. We ascend the height of argument by means of supernatures. These supernatures are, so to speak, natural manifestations or degrees of the supernatural.

1881, Joseph William Reynolds, The Mystery of Miracles, page 365:

These peripheral ghosts earn large amounts of money in the streets, and the money they make is a convertible currency in the sense that it enables a contest of power with other higher social classes in supernature.

2008, Heonik Kwon, Ghosts of War in Vietnam, →ISBN, pages 151–152:

(theology, philosophy) A supernatural realm beyond or apart from the physical world.


mantelletta

Borrowed from Italian mantelletta, from mantello (“cloak, mantle”) + -etta (from -etto (diminutive suffix)), probably from Late Latin mantelletum (“a short, sleeveless cape or cloak; a mantlet”). Doublet of mantlet.

der

We were without comestibles, and we had no garments except those we wore, not even a shirt, and the habits, such as they were, were most inconvenient for travelling; for the Pope [Pius VII] wore his mozzetta and stola, and I [Bartolomeo Pacca] the rocchetto and mozzetta, together with the mantelletta.

1850 August 31, “Historical Memoirs of Cardinal Pacca, Prime Minister to Pius VII. Written by Himself. Translated from the Italian, by Sir George Head. 2 vols. Longman & Co.”, in The Athenæum: Journal of English and Foreign Literature, Science, and the Fine Arts, number 1192, London: Printed by James Holmes, Took's Court, Chancery Lane; published at the Office, 14 Wellington Street North, Strand, by J. Francis, →OCLC, page 921, column 2:

In Rome the cardinals wear the mozzetta over the mantelletta, except in their titular churches, when it is worn immediately over the rochet.

1912, “The Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church”, in Herman Joseph Heuser, editor, The Ecclesiastical Review: A Monthly Publication for the Clergy, volume XLVI, Philadelphia, Pa.: American Ecclesiastical Review, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 145:

In the presence of the Pope and within the Archbishopric of Rome, the cardinals and the bishops had to conceal the rochet beneath a so-called mantelletta, a knee-length coat, which was open at the front.

2015, Philipp Zitzlsperger, “A Change in Forms and the Migration of Bodies in Rome – From the Cardinal’s Tomb to the Cenotaph”, in Tarald Rasmussen, Jon Øygarden Flæten, editors, Preparing for Death, Remembering the Dead, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, →ISBN, page 84:

(Roman Catholicism) A sleeveless, knee-length vestment open at the front which is worn by Roman Catholic prelates.


mikveh

en-noun

mikveh (plural mikvehs or mikveot or mikvos or mikvot or mikvoth)

mikvehs (plural)
mikveot (plural)
mikvos (plural)
mikvot (plural)
mikvoth (plural)

From Hebrew מִקְוֶה (mikvé, “collection [of water]”).

bor

On the night before her wedding Channa Washinsky would certainly have immersed herself in the ritually cleansing waters of the mikveh.

2006, Howard Jacobson, Kalooki Nights, Vintage, published 2007, page 197:

Adjacent were the remains of a mikvah bath for the ritual purification of women, and a kosher abattoir for the ritual slaughter of beasts [...].

2010, Christopher Hitchens, Hitch-22, Atlantic, published 2011, page 365:

(Judaism) A ritual bath in which various Jewish purifications are performed.


sheitel

From Yiddish שייטל (sheytl), cognate to German Scheitel (“parting”).

I keep wanting to put her in a sheitel, the wig that every Orthodox Jewish wife is supposed to wear in order to prevent a man not her husband from lusting after her in his heart.

2006, Howard Jacobson, Kalooki Nights, Vintage, published 2007, page 196:

Many even have their sheitel professionally styled: according to the New York Times, a Madison Avenue salon that specializes in sheitel grooming charges at least $600 for the service: […]

2022, Richard Thompson Ford, Dress Codes […] , Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 288:

(Judaism) A wig worn by married Orthodox Jewish women.

פֵּאָה

wig worn by married orthodox Jewish women


cheder

en-noun

cheder (plural cheders or chederim or chedarim or chadarim or chadorim)

cheders (plural)
chederim (plural)
chedarim (plural)
chadarim (plural)
chadorim (plural)

From Yiddish חדר (kheyder), from Hebrew חדר (khéder, “room”).

A businessman in New York who happened to be in the Midlands at the time was so impressed by Asher's methods that he was funding him to set up a string of chederim – Sunday schools for Jews – all over the United States.

2006, Howard Jacobson, Kalooki Nights, Vintage, published 2007, page 51:

(education, Judaism) An elementary school for Jewish children, teaching basic Judaism and Hebrew.


muron

Borrowed from Ancient Greek μῠ́ρον (múron).


Japhetite

(biblical) A supposed descendant of Japheth, one of the three sons of Noah.


Magha Puja

(Theravada Buddhism) A religious festival in Southeast Asia, falling on the full moon of the third lunar month, commemorating the occasion when the Lord Buddha preached to 1250 enlightened disciples.


marabout

From French marabout, from Portuguese maraboto, marabuto, from Moroccan Arabic مْرَابِط (mrabeṭ) (standard Arabic مُرَابِط (murābiṭ, “soldier stationed in fortified outpost”)).

cog

one of their principal targets was the marabouts – or holy men and leaders of mystic orders – whom they accused both of corrupting the faith by their espousal of mysticism and of being the ‘domestic animals of colonialism’.

1977, Alistair Horne, A Savage War of Peace, New York: Review Books, published 2006, page 38:

(Islam) A Muslim holy man or mystic, especially in parts of North Africa.


vice-chancellor

(Christianity) In Roman Catholicism, the cardinal whose duty it is to draft and dispatch papal bulls and briefs.


ecclesia

From Latin ecclēsia, from Ancient Greek ἐκκλησία (ekklēsía). Doublet of Eccles.

(biblical) The congregation, the group of believers, symbolic body or building.


posken

en-verb

posken (third-person singular simple present poskens, present participle poskening, simple past and past participle poskened)

poskens (present singular third-person)
poskening (participle present)
poskened (participle past)
poskened (past)

In no way are we poskening; rather, we simply hope to give readers a sense of the issues.

1991, From Our Sealed Rooms: A Most Unusual War : a Gulf War Retrospective, Feldheim Pub:

The Rosh Yeshivah listened to both sides, and then poskened in favor of the young man. The woman was not happy, but after all, this was the decision of the Rosh Yeshivah. So she agreed to abide by his decision and the two of them went home.

1992 September 8, Michael Allen, “Not a Charm?”, in soc.culture.jewish (Usenet):

(Judaism) To make an official ruling or decision.


EQ

(Mormonism) Initialism of Elders' Quorum.


co-religionist

/kəʊɹɪˈlɪdʒənɪst/

From the mid-sixteenth century, Western Christians – Protestants as well as Roman Catholics, thanks to the great split of the Reformation – interested themselves afresh in their afflicted co-religionists in the East.

2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin, published 2010, page 499:

Moreover, the greater charitability of religious people in studies is accounted for by their contributing more to coreligionists, and the bulk of the charitability of highly religious people in the real world consists of charity to their own group.

2023, Robert M. Sapolsky, Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will, New York: Penguin, →ISBN:


isagogic

en-adj

isagogic (comparative more isagogic, superlative most isagogic)

more isagogic (comparative)
most isagogic (superlative)


what would Jesus do

(religion, Christianity, chiefly evangelicalism) Expression intended to help a person facing a choice with moral, ethical or religious implications.


enturbulence

(Scientology) The state or quality of being enturbulated, agitated or disturbed.


Mithra

Transliteration of Avestan 𐬨𐬌𐬚𐬭𐬀 (miθra). Doublet of Mitra.

translit

The cult of Mithra had been spread by soldiers and had thrived particularly in the frontier provinces of the empire.

1991, Robert Schilling, "Roman Religion", Roman and European Mythologies, UChicago Press, p. 67. (English language translation of a French text)

The Roman Mithra was best known for his act of slaying a bull; yet there is no indication that the Iranian Mithra ever made his way into a bullpen for any reason. The Roman Mithra didn't appear at all interested in contract enforcement or escorting demons into hell.

2008, James Patrick Holding, Shattering the Christ Myth, Xulon Press, page 202:

(rare, esoterica, hyperforeign) Roman Mithras.

[Term?] (/*miça/) (non-loan native OP for the same figure, only known from Elamite and Babylonian translations of OP inscriptions)


Kezia

From Hebrew קְצִיעָה (“cassia tree”). Compare cassia.

The second of the three daughters of Job.


florilegium

en-noun

florilegium (plural florilegia or florilegiums)

florilegia (plural)
florilegiums (plural)

Borrowed from Renaissance Latin flōrilēgium, calque of Ancient Greek ἀνθολογία (anthología, “flower-gathering”) (compare English anthology), so called because flowers were used as symbols of the finer sensibility of literature.


Ishtar

Learned borrowing from Akkadian 𒀭𒈹 (Ištar). Doublet of Astarte and Ashtoreth. Despite modern folk-etymology, not related in any way to English Easter.

lbor

(Mesopotamian mythology) A goddess of fertility, love, sex, and war. In the Babylonian pantheon, she was the divine personification of the planet Venus; the Assyrian and Babylonian counterpart to the Sumerian Inanna and to the northwest-Semitic goddess Astarte.

عشتار

Mesopotamian goddess of fertility, love, sex, and war


Inanna

As popular with the mythmakers as Enki, or even more so, was his granddaughter Inanna, city goddess or^([sic]) Uruk and one of the most complex figures in the Mesopotamian pantheon.

1996, Cecil Roth, Encyclopaedia Judaica: Ur-Z, Encyclopaedia Judaica, page 1505p:

During the second half of the third and early part of the second millennia B.C.E., the Sumerian goddess Inanna was worshiped in seven cities of southern Mesopotamia (among them Zabala, Agade, and Kish), but principally in her temple Eana at Uruk.

1999, Serinity Young, Encyclopedia of Women and World Religion: A-K, Macmillan, page 466:

Even at this period, Inanna appears in various manifestations, each of which seems to possess a separate cult, temples with cultic functionaries, and the right to receive offerings.

2002, The SSEA Journal, Volume 29, Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities, page 17:

(mythology, Mesopotamian mythology) A Sumerian goddess of sexual love, fertility, and warfare, known by the Akkadians as Ishtar and later identified with Astarte, Aphrodite, and Venus.


Astarte

Borrowed from Latin Astarte, ultimately from Phoenician 𐤏𐤔𐤕𐤓𐤕 (ʿAštart) via Ancient Greek Ἀστάρτη (Astártē). Doublet of Ashtoreth and Ishtar.

A Semitic goddess of fertility, sexuality, and war, cognate in name, origin and function with the goddess Phoenician 𐤏𐤔𐤕𐤓𐤕 (ʿAštart) of Phoenicia.


disincarnate

en-verb

disincarnate (third-person singular simple present disincarnates, present participle disincarnating, simple past and past participle disincarnated)

disincarnates (present singular third-person)
disincarnating (participle present)
disincarnated (participle past)
disincarnated (past)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-disincarnate.wav

(religion, intransitive) To die, in context of subsequently existing outside the body (for example, as a soul or spirit).


Asman

From Avestan 𐬀𐬯𐬨𐬀𐬥 (asman, “sky”). Cognate of Old Persian 𐎠𐎿𐎶𐎴 (a-s-m-n /asman-/, “sky”).

cog

𐬚𐬡𐬁𐬴𐬀 𐬚𐬡𐬁𐬴𐬀#Avestan

(Zoroastrianism) Avestan and Middle Persian name of the Zoroastrian divinity that is the hypostasis of the sky. Asman is the "highest heaven," and is distinguished from the firmament, 𐬚𐬡𐬁𐬴𐬀 (θβāṣ̌a), which lies nearer the earth.


Ahuna Vairya

Transliteration of Avestan 𐬀𐬵𐬎𐬥𐬀 𐬬𐬀𐬌𐬭𐬌𐬌𐬀 (ahuna vaⁱriia).

translit

𐬀𐬵𐬎𐬥𐬀 𐬬𐬀𐬌𐬭𐬌𐬌𐬀

(Zoroastrianism) Avestan language name of the most sacred of the Gathic hymns of the Avesta, the revered texts of Zoroastrianism.


Ameretat

From Avestan 𐬀𐬨𐬆𐬭𐬆𐬙𐬁𐬙 (amər^ətāt, “not dying”).

der

(Zoroastrianism) The Zoroastrian divinity/divine concept of "not dying". As the hypostasis of immortality, Ameretat is the Amesha Spenta of long life on earth and eternal life in the hereafter.


Yasna

From Avestan 𐬫𐬀𐬯𐬥𐬀 (yasna, “oblation; worship”).

uder

(Zoroastrianism) The primary liturgical collection of texts of the Avesta.

(Zoroastrianism) The principal Zoroastrian act of worship at which those verses are recited.


Vendidad

From Avestan 𐬬𐬍𐬛𐬀𐬉𐬬𐬋𐬛𐬁𐬙𐬀 (vīdaēvōdāta, literally “given against the demons”).

(Zoroastrianism) A collection of texts within the greater compendium of the Avesta. By content, an enumeration of various manifestations of evil spirits, and ways to confound them.


Haurvatat

Transliteration of Avestan 𐬵𐬀𐬎𐬭𐬬𐬀𐬙𐬁𐬙 (haurvatāt, “wholeness”). Doublet of Khordad.

translit

(Zoroastrianism) The Zoroastrian concept of “wholeness” or “perfection”. As a divinity, Haᵘrvatat is the Amesha Spenta of water, prosperity, and health.


Angra Mainyu

From Avestan 𐬀𐬢𐬭𐬀⸱𐬨𐬀𐬌𐬥𐬌𐬌𐬎 (aŋra.maⁱniiu), from 𐬀𐬢𐬭𐬀 (aŋra, “evil”) + 𐬨𐬀𐬌𐬥𐬌𐬌𐬎 (maⁱniiu, “spirit”). Doublet of Ahriman.

der

𐬀𐬢𐬭𐬀⸱𐬨𐬀𐬌𐬥𐬌𐬌𐬎

(Zoroastrianism) Avestan language name of Zoroastrianism's hypostasis of the "destructive spirit". The Middle Persian equivalent is Ahriman.


daeva

Transliteration of Avestan 𐬛𐬀𐬉𐬎𐬎𐬀 (daēuua). Doublet of deva.

translit

(Zoroastrianism) A supernatural entity of disagreeable nature.


Amesha Spenta

en-noun

Amesha Spenta (plural Amesha Spenta or Amesha Spentas)

Amesha Spenta (plural)
Amesha Spentas (plural)

t

𐬀𐬨𐬆𐬱𐬀 𐬯𐬞𐬆𐬧𐬙𐬀

𐬀𐬨𐬆𐬱𐬀 𐬯𐬞𐬆𐬧𐬙𐬀 (aməša spəṇta)

Avestan: 𐬀𐬨𐬆𐬱𐬀 𐬯𐬞𐬆𐬧𐬙𐬀 (aməša spəṇta)

ამეშა სპენტა

ამეშა სპენტა (ameša sṗenṭa)

Georgian: ამეშა სპენტა (ameša sṗenṭa)

Middle Persian: 𐭠𐭬𐭧𐭥𐭮𐭯𐭭𐭣 (ʾmḥʿspnd /amahraspand/)

Persian: امشاسپند (fa) (amešâspand), امهرسپند (amahraspand)

From Avestan 𐬀𐬨𐬆𐬱𐬀 𐬯𐬞𐬆𐬧𐬙𐬀 (aməša spəṇta, “Bounteous Immortal”).

der

𐬀𐬨𐬆𐬱𐬀 𐬯𐬞𐬆𐬧𐬙𐬀

Thus whereas Bousset, for instance, regarded the Amesha Spentas of the Zoroastrian religion as a textbook example of the process by which concrete divine beings could be evaporated into abstract figures,² it is now recognized that the development ran, in fact, in the opposite direction, that is, from the personification of abstract concepts to concrete protecting spirits, while the ancient Persian gods were the object of Zoroaster′s fierce attack.³

1967, Walter Eichrodt, Theology of the Old Testament, page 195:

Each Amesha Spenta retains his or her⁵ individual nature and life which was given at their creation.[…]and it is an act he also accomplishes through the guardianship and identification that the Amesha Spentas have for and with the world.

1998, Peter Clark, Zoroastrianism: An Introduction to Ancient Faith, page 30:

Having created Asha,^([divine order]) Ahura Mazda was its first follower. He rules through His Divine Powers, the Amesha Spenta, the immortal Shining Ones, collectively known as the Haft Amshahspands, the Seven Amesha Spenta.

2003, Hamid Naseem Rafiabadi, “8: The Notions of Divine Being in various Religions”, in Hamid Naseem Rafiabadi, editor, World Religions and Islam: A Critical Study, Part 1, page 125:

(Zoroastrianism) Any of the six immortal beings created by Ahura Mazda plus Ahura Mazda himself, often equated to archangels, virtues, and elements of nature.


panatheism

The assertion that no god or gods exist and that then nothing can be correctly termed holy or be considered sacred.

The belief in "all atheism"; the position that all people are atheists to one or more god models.


Ahura Mazda

Transliteration of Avestan 𐬀𐬵𐬎𐬭𐬀 𐬨𐬀𐬰𐬛𐬁 (ahura mazdā). Doublet of Aramazd.

translit

A relief sculpture of Ahura Mazda stands among the ruins of Persepolis in Iran.

2003, Jeffrey Brodd, World Religions 2003: A Voyage of Discovery, page 181:

What is important is that Darius and his successors were fervent Mazdeans, that is, worshipers of Ahura Mazda.

2004, Sarah Iles Johnston, Religions of the Ancient World: A Guide, page 555:

Thus Ahura Mazda may be analogous to the Christian Trinity (one God in three persons), except consisting of one God in seven Amesha Spentas. In any event, the doctrine of the Amesha Spentas should not be interpreted in any way that compromises Zoroaster′s monotheism, although it would eventually change in exactly that way after the passing of Zoroaster himself.

2012, Winfried Corduan, Neighboring Faiths: A Christian Introduction to World Religions, page 190:

(Zoroastrianism) The divinity exalted by Zoroaster as the one uncreated Creator, or God.

阿胡拉·马兹达

Āhúlā Mǎzīdá


tengu

(Japanese mythology, Shinto, mythology) A mythical Japanese creature, typically birdlike and having a long nose.


Nyepi

A Hindu Balinese day of silence, fasting, and meditation that falls on Bali's Lunar New Year.


confiteor

From Latin cōnfiteor (“I confess”), the first word of the prayer and used as its title in Ecclesiastical Latin. Doublet of confess.

“Pugh!” she said. “You are disgusting! Go into the chapel now and say a confiteor each for your sin.”

1967, The Saturday Evening Post, volume 240, page 80:

(Christianity, chiefly Roman Catholicism) A prayer, typically beginning “I confess to Almighty God…” in English, in which public confession of sins is made.


Tophet

Borrowed from Biblical Hebrew תוֹפֶת (tôp̄eṯ).

And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Jeremiah 7:31:

(biblical) A location near Jerusalem in the valley of Gehenna where children were burned alive as sacrifice.


rood screen

The church at Randworth is without aisles, and consists of a chancel and nave only. The rood-screen proper, i.e., the arcade with panels below, is placed, as usual, between the piers of the chancel arch.

1867, Illustrations of the Rood-screen at Randworth: Published under the Direction of the Norfolk and Norwich Archæological Society. Drawn and Lithographed by C[ornelius] J[ansen] W[alter] Winter, Norwich: Printed for the Society by Miller and Leavins, →OCLC, page 4:

An ancient rood screen usually, probably always, consisted of a loft from twelve to twenty feet high, and five to ten feet broad, protected by two parapets, the one towards the chancel the other towards the nave, running its entire length, sometimes quite across the church. […] The space below the loft was filled up by carved work called the rood screen, to screen off the chancel from the nave. This rood screen [in St Edmund's Church, Southwold] is all that ruthless iconoclasts have suffered to remain.

1874, “Halesworth Meeting, August 11, 1870. The Lord John Hervey, President.”, in Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archæology, and Natural History. Established March, 1848, for the Collection and Publication of Information on the Ancient Arts and Monuments of the County of Suffolk, volume IV, Bury St. Edmund's: George Thompson, bookseller, Abbeygate Street, →OCLC, page 451:

Exhibited in the treasury of Durham Cathedral are two stone relief panels, dated 1155–60, whose damaged appearance belies their significance for our understanding of the liturgical division of space in twelfth-century cathedrals[…]. Although easily overlooked, these panels belonged to what was perhaps the single most important piece of ecclesiastical furniture in the Romanesque cathedral of Durham: the rood screen. Like all Romanesque sculpture in our museums and treasuries today, these panels have been uprooted from their original, medieval context. […] The scarcity of evidence for the decorative elaboration of rood screens in the twelfth century makes the Durham panels important vestiges of a type of ecclesiastical furniture whose origin is still obscure to us.

1994, Thomas E. Russo, “The Romanesque Rood Screen of Durham Cathedral: Context and Form”, in David Rollason, Margaret Harvey, Michael Prestwich, editors, Anglo-Norman Durham, 1093–1193, Woodbridge, Suffolk: The Boydell Press, →ISBN, page 251:

There are about eighty rood screens in Norfolk, which divide the chancel from the nave, most of them dating from 1450–1530, and generally made of wood and adorned with painted saints. […] Rood screens were perceived as aids to devotional meditation.

2000, Susan Signe Morrison, “The Milky Way: Women Pilgrims and Visual Art”, in Women Pilgrims in Late Medieval England: Private Piety as Public Performance (Routledge Research in Medieval Studies; 3), London, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, page 27:

The rood-screen was normally a stone or wooden partition, solid to waist-height and then pierced with openings to allow sight of the high altar, and a doorway to permit access to the officiating ministers. A great crucifix, usually supported by a heavy beam, stretched across the top of the screen.

2012, Eamon Duffy, “The Parish, Piety and Patronage: The Evidence of Rood-screens”, in Saints, Sacrilege and Sedition: Religion and Conflict in the Tudor Reformations, London: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 58:

(architecture, Christianity) A carved screen that separated the chancel and nave in a medieval church; it originally carried a large crucifix; an altar screen.


Bahrām

Ultimately from Proto-Indo-Iranian *Wr̥tragʰnás. Doublet of Vahagn.

(Zoroastrianism) Verethragna; The Zoroastrian concept of “victory over resistance” and, as the hypostasis of victory, one of the principal figures in the Zoroastrian pantheon of yazatas.


Mary Magdalene

From Mary + Magdalene; from Middle English Marie Magdaleyn, Marie Magdeleyne, Marye Maudelen, Marye Maudeleyne, Marie Mawdeleyn, Mary Maudelen, Mary Mawdelayn, from Old French Marie Madelaine and Latin Marīa Magdalēna.

The firſt day of the weeke, commeth Mary Magdalene earely when it was yet darke, vnto the Sepulchre, and ſeeth the ſtone taken away from the Sepulchre.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, John 20:1, column 2:

I tried to explain to the large and emotional congregation how Jesus would address the problem of illicit sex, contagion, and suffering. I quoted texts about his attitude toward Mary Magdalene (who was cured of seven sins), the Samaritan woman at the well (with five lovers), and the woman caught in adultery and sentenced to be stoned to death. I said that all these actions showed his love and forgiveness and that Matthew 25’s “unto the least of these” put the responsibility on all of us to reach out to the afflicted with forgiveness and love.

2014, Jimmy Carter, “Slavery and Prostitution”, in A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence, and Power, Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 139:


buddhi

(Hinduism) A transpersonal faculty of mind higher than the rational mind that might be translated as ‘intuitive intelligence’ or simply ‘higher mind’. It is ‘that which knows’, ie. able to discern truth from falsehood.


Sarasvati

The Hindu goddess of knowledge and the arts.

A female given name from Sanskrit used in India.


Parvati

(Hinduism) A Hindu goddess, the goddess of love, devotion and power; nominally the second consort of Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction and rejuvenation.


Mara

From Hebrew מָרָא (mara, “bitterness”), derived from Hebrew מַר (mar, “bitter”). The modern given name may also be shortened from Maria or Tamara.

Call me not Naomi, call me Mara; for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Ruth 1:20:


Mara

From Sanskrit मर (mara), from Proto-Indo-European *mer- (“to die”). Doublet of mortality.

(Hinduism) The Hindu god of death; opposite of Kama.

(Buddhism) The Buddhist archangel of evil or demon


Mara

(Slavic mythology) The Slavic goddess of winter and death; Marena or Maržanna.


particular Church

en-noun

particular Church (plural particular Churches)

(Catholic canon law) Any of the individual constituent hierarchically ordered ecclesial communities in full communion with Rome that are part of the Catholic Church as a whole.


confirmand

The preacher then tells the confirmands, that as a token of their full consent to the confession just made, each of them should kiss the Scroll of the Law.

1868, Isaac Mayer Wise, Hymns, Psalms and Prayers, page 203:

In confirmation the confirmand confesses his faith and expresses a willingness to accept and obey Jesus Christ as his Lord; and the Christian Church confirms the worthiness of the confirmand to partake of the fellowship and heavenly blessings which this new relation called church-membership involves.

1917 March 25, “Showing by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ”, in The Evangelical Herald, volume 16, page 83:

These persons are recruited from a list of several, active adults in the church that is submitted by each confirmand.

2009, Michael J. Coyner, The Race to Reach Out: Connecting Newcomers to Christ in a New Century:

(religion) A candidate for confirmation or affirmation of baptism.


Indra

Transliteration of Sanskrit इन्द्र (índra).

translit

(Hinduism, Vedic religion) The god of war and weather; also the King of the Gods or Devas and Lord of Heaven or Svargaloka in Hinduism.


goddess-ship

From goddess + -ship. Attested from 1610.

Goddesshood, the state or position of being a goddess.


Nathanael

From Ancient Greek Ναθαναήλ (Nathanaḗl), from Biblical Hebrew נְתַנְאֵל (Netan'el, literally “God has given”).

der

Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith of him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!

An Apostle in the Gospel of John; usually identified with Bartholomew.

A male given name from Hebrew; more common in the form Nathaniel.


Ananias

From Ancient Greek Ἀνανίας (Ananías), from Hebrew חֲנַנְיָה (khananyá).

But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land?

And hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in, and putting his hand on him, that he might receive his sight.

In the New Testament, any of certain members of the early Christian church.

Bunter entertained a hope of convincing Quelch that he hadn't been in the study at all. He had great faith in his powers as an Ananias!

1934, Frank Richards, The Magnet: Kidnapped from the Air:

(type) (with reference to Acts 5.3) A liar.


reindeer games

/ˈɹeɪndɪə ˌɡeɪmz/

From the song “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” (1949) by the American songwriter Johnny Marks (1909–1985): “All of the other reindeer / Used to laugh and call him names. / They never let poor Rudolph / Join in any reindeer games.”

The natives are a primitive but gregarious lot. They invited me to join them in their reindeer games, which I did.

1984, Joseph Dougherty, Digby: A Play, New York, N.Y.: Dramatists Play Service, published 1986, →OCLC, page 68:

Transfer to Washington. Transfer to Jefferson. No one at Westerburg's going to let you play their reindeer games.

1989, Daniel Waters, Heathers, spoken by Heather Chandler (Kim Walker):

His unhappiness was not due solely to the ravages of adolescence, the eccentricities of his family, exclusion from his peers' reindeer games, or even by living in the embodiment of Thornton Wilder's Our Town. It was all of those things and none of them.

2002, Terry J. Kunkel, “An Older Reflection”, in Is Wanting Enough? […], Lincoln, Neb.: Writers Club Press, iUniverse, →ISBN, part I (Lighting the Race Point Luminaria on Cape Cod), page 40:

It's tough being different in a society where conformity is so very important. Not the type of different that caused you to be picked on by the big kids in grade school because you wore glasses or didn't join the reindeer games, but the type of different that caused you to listen up in class and always do your homework.

2003 October 27, Tim Dannelly, “The Top, Home of the Lonely Brave”, in Living the American Dream, [Bloomington, Ind.]: 1stbooks, →ISBN:

When socializing it's important that you never talk business unless they bring it up. If you do, you'll find out quickly that you're no longer invited to any of the really good reindeer games. Rather, be a good listener.

2006, Christopher Duncan, “Managing Your Management”, in Dominic Shakeshaft, editor, The Career Programmer: Guerilla Tactics for an Imperfect World (The Expert’s Voice), 2nd edition, Berkeley, Calif.: Apress, →ISBN, part II (Guerilla Tactics for Front-line Programmers), page 171:

Some fighter pilot traditions have taken on the air of reindeer games—they are nothing more than something one has to be a fighter pilot to understand.

2007, Jonathan C. Dowty, “Fighter Pilot Traditions”, in Christian Fighter Pilot is Not an Oxymoron, [U.S.A.?]: [Jonathan C. Dowty], →ISBN, part 1 (Fighter Pilot Foundations), page 23:

He found all the faddishness of what restaurant or club was in, much less what designer clothes one wore or food one ate, to be depressingly shallow and frantic. In his own private protest, he had long since consciously decided not to play their reindeer games.

2009 April, Robert Asprin, “Prologue”, in Dragons Luck, New York, N.Y.: Ace Books, →ISBN:

In my mind I had won. Lyndon was with me and not with Hope so whether the two of them shut me out of their reindeer games or included me, it didn't matter one iota to me.

2014, Latonya D. Young, “The Promise of Forever”, in Secrets in Love, [Morrisville, N.C.]: Lulu Publishing, →ISBN, page 86:

I know reindeer games, and this chick is playing them.

2015, John Hornor Jacobs, chapter 9, in The Conformity (The Twelve-fingered Boy Trilogy; 3), Minneapolis, Minn.: Carolrhoda Lab, Lerner Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 55:

(US, informal) Activities which exclude outsiders.

Johnny Marks
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer


Vritra

(Hinduism) An Asura and also a serpent or dragon, the personification of drought and enemy of Indra. Vritra was also known in the Vedas as Ahi ("snake"), and he is said to have had three heads.


swear on a stack of Bibles

en-verb

swear<,,swore,sworn> on a stack of Bibles

swear on a stack of Bibles (third-person singular simple present swears on a stack of Bibles, present participle swearing on a stack of Bibles, simple past swore on a stack of Bibles, past participle sworn on a stack of Bibles)

swears on a stack of Bibles (present singular third-person)
swearing on a stack of Bibles (participle present)
swore on a stack of Bibles (past)
sworn on a stack of Bibles (participle past)

From the practice of some people making an oath on a Bible to tell the truth when testifying in court.

Why not check me into a sanatorium, let them watch me, examine me, give me the tests? In twelve hours they can tell whether I'm lying or not. If I'm clean, I'll be all right. If I'm not, I'll get sick as a dog, start throwing up at both ends, and this would prove I'm a damn liar. It would be better than all the affidavits in the world. I could swear on a stack of Bibles, but who would believe me? […] So I did it. It cost me almost a thousand dollars to pay the doctors to watch me and supervise me down to the last minute so they could go to court and make a statement. I stayed there four days; and when I left, everyone in the place was ready to swear on a stack of Bibles that I was clean.

1956, Billie Holiday with William Dufty, Lady Sings the Blues, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, →OCLC:

Says L.A. Times Managing Editor Frank McCulloch: "I know it looks bad, but I'll swear on a stack of Bibles it's a sheer coincidence."

1962 July 13, “Sheer Coincidence”, in Time, archived from the original on 2013-08-23:

“Sissy, promised you won’t tell Daddy. Swear on a stack of Bibles.” He leaned into his sister and sniffled against her chest. / “I promise,” she answered. “Now what is it?” / “Swear, Sissy. Swear on a stack of Bibles!” / Copper yawned mightily, wishing to sink back under the bedclothes. “Oh, Willy, we don’t have a stack of Bibles. Besides, it’s a sin to swear. Just tell me.”

2005, Jan Watson, edited by Jerry B. Jenkins, Troublesome Creek, Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., →ISBN:

‘Swear it! C’mon, swear it on a stack of Bibles!’ / ‘I swear on a stack of Bibles I’ll never tell, cross my heart and hope to die,’ I say, adding the extra bit for good measure.

2001, Bryce Courtenay, Four Fires, Middlesex: Penguin Books, →ISBN:

Already most of us feel somewhat softer toward Japan than we swore on a stack of Bibles we ever would feel.

2003, Kazuko Hirose Kawaguchi, A Social Theory of International Law: International Relations as a Complex System, Leiden, Boston, Mass.: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, →ISBN, page 176:

From what has been said so far, […] and their many perjuries in front of the judges during interrogation (because don't care about perjuring themselves and drawing down curses upon themselves and swearing on a stack of Bibles), it is clear that, because of their essential nature and formal profession of belief and reception into their congregation, these Waldensians are apostates from the faith, idolaters and guilty of the crime of treason against God; […]

2011, P. G. Maxwell-Stuart, Witch Beliefs and Witch Trials in the Middle Ages: Documents and Readings, London, New York, N.Y.: Continuum International Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 95:

To make a promise or give an assurance with great conviction.


Bava Metzi'a

From Aramaic בבא מציעא (literally “the middle chapter”).

der

A tractate (book) of the Talmud which deals with the laws of property.


Bhaga

(Hinduism) One of the Adityas, a god of wealth and marriage in Hinduism. In the Rigveda Bhaga is the god who supervises the distribution of goods and destiny to each man corresponding to his merits.


Aditya

(Hinduism) Any of a group of solar deities, the sons of Aditi and Kashyapa.


Aditya

A male given name from Sanskrit mainly used in India and Nepal.


ordinand

From Latin ordinandus (“(the one) to be ordained”).


Yama

Borrowed from Sanskrit यम (yamá). Doublet of Enma.

(Hinduism, Buddhism) The Hindu lord of death, who rides a buffalo.

যম

the Hindu lord of death, who rides a buffalo


Nataraja

From Sanskrit नटराज (naṭarāja), from नर्त (narta, “dancing”) + राजन् (rājan, “king”).

(Hinduism) The dancing posture of the Hindu god Shiva, who performs his divine dance as a part of his activities of creation and destruction.


dhimmi

From French dhimmi, from Arabic ذِمِّيّ (ḏimmiyy, “a dhimmi”), from ذِمَّة (ḏimma, “protection, custody”).

(Islam, chiefly historical) A protected and specially taxed non-Muslim subject of a state governed under dhimma, a form of social contract, in accordance with sharia law.


Eastern Orthodoxy

The faith, practices, etc. of the Eastern Orthodox Church.


Adi-Buddha

Transliteration of Sanskrit आदिबुद्ध (ādibuddha).

translit

(Buddhism) The Primordial Buddha, a self-emanating, self-originating Buddha, present before anything else existed.


clandestinity

en-noun

clandestinity (usually uncountable, plural clandestinities)

(religion) A diriment impediment in the canon law of the Roman Catholic Church, requiring the presence of witnesses to the marriage vows, one of whom must be a priest or a deacon.


chimere

From Middle French chimarre, from Spanish zamarra. Cognate with French chamarre, simarre, Italian zimarra, of same origin. Doublet of simar, sable, and zimarra.

(ecclesiastical) The upper robe worn by some bishops of the Anglican communion, usually without sleeves.


boline

Originally spelled bolline. From Italian bolino, which is a variant of bulino (“burin”). The bolino was conflated with the cortel bianco ("white knife"). Doublet of burin.

Grabbing my wicker basket and boline, the special knife I use for cutting herbs, I passed through the living room and out a pair of French doors onto my terrace garden.

2012, Juliet Blackwell, In a Witch's Wardrobe: A Witchcraft Mystery, New York, NY: New American Library, →ISBN, page 28:

A white handled knife used in Wicca, for physical cutting, in contrast to the athame.


dhyana

dhyana (countable and uncountable, plural dhyanas)

From Sanskrit ध्यान (dhyāna, literally “meditation”). Doublet of Zen and Chan.

bor

Thus the Kaivalyopanisad accords equal importance to Sraddha (faith-regard), devotion (bhakti) and meditation (dhyana) for the attainment of the highest knowledge.

The beginning must be made with pathawi-kasina, and then the dhyánas, &c., must be taken alternately, as from the first dhyána to the third, then to ákásánancháyatana, and so on to the end.

1860, Robert Spence Hardy, Eastern monachism, page 262:

Each of the three planes may be experienced through developing the dhyānas in meditation - so here we have yet another way of describing higher states of consciousness.

1997, Meditation: The Buddhist Way of Tranquillity and Insight, page 86:

(Hinduism, Buddhism) A type of profound meditation.


Nicodemus

Borrowed from Ancient Greek Νῑκόδημος (Nīkódēmos), from νῑ́κη (nī́kē, “victory”) + δῆμος (dêmos, “people”).

(rare) A male given name from Ancient Greek.


Thaddaeus

en-proper noun

Thaddaeus (countable and uncountable, plural Thaddaeuses)

From Latin Thaddaeus, from Ancient Greek Θαδδαῖος (Thaddaîos).

Philip, and Bartholomew; Thomas, and Matthew the Publican; James the son of Alphaeus, and Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus;

(rare) A male given name from Ancient Greek; usually spelled Thaddeus.


Theophilus

/θiːˈɒfɪləs/

Ancient Greek Θεόφιλος (Theóphilos), meaning "love of God" or "friend of God".

It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus.

Acts of the Apostles
Acts of the Apostles

(biblical) The addressee of the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles.


Essene

From Ancient Greek Ἐσσηνοι (Essēnoi); earlier etymology unknown

(historical) A member of a first-century ascetic Jewish sect in ancient Palestine from the second century BCE to the second century CE. The Essenes are believed to have been the authors of the Dead Sea scrolls.


shakha

From Sanskrit शाखा (śā́khā, “a branch; arm etc.”).

uder

It is held that the ancient Rishis or saints, like the Jewish patriarchs, lived far beyond the ordinary span of existence, and hence had time to learn all the Vedas and their commentaries. But this was impossible for their short-lived descendants, and hence each Veda has been divided into a number of Shākhas or branches, and the ordinary Brāhman only learns one Shākha of one Veda.

1916, R. V. Russell, The Tribes And Castes Of The Central Provinces Of India, page 360:

(Hinduism) Either a school of the Vedas, or the traditional texts followed by a school.


Ushas

From Sanskrit उषस् (uṣás, “dawn”). Doublet of Aurora and Eos.

Of the goddesses there are only two who have any marked individuality, viz., Ushas, the dawn, and Sarasvati, the goddess of the river of that name, and afterwards the goddess of speech.

1999, Shyam Singh Shashi, Encyclopaedia Indica, page 16:

(Vedic religion, Hinduism) Vedic and Hindu female deity, personifying the dawn, usually mentioned in plural. She is portrayed as welcoming birds and warding off evil spirits, and as a beautifully adorned young woman riding in a golden chariot on her path across the sky.


Dyaus Pita

From Sanskrit द्यौष्पितृ (dyauṣ-pitṛ). Doublet of Jupiter.

Thus in the early Vedas we find records of Dyaus-Pita, or “Father-Heaven,” accompanied by Prithvi or “Mother-Earth”; also Ushas or “Dawn-Goddess”; Surya, or the “Sun-God”; Vayu or the “Wind-God”; and Agni, the “Fire-god”.

1998, Yogi Ramacharaka Ramacharaka, The Philosophies and Religions of India, Kessinger Publishing, page 250:

(Hinduism) In the Vedic religion, the Sky Father, husband of Prithvi and father of Agni and Indra.


Haoma

Transliteration of Avestan 𐬵𐬀𐬊𐬨𐬀 (haoma).

translit

Quickly spake Zarathustra: praise to the Haoma, the created by Mazda! Good is Haoma, the created by Mazda! Praise to the Haoma!

1864, Arthur Henry Bleeck, Friedrich Spiegel, Avesta: The Religious Books of the Parsees, Yasna 9.23, page 61

Even today Zoroastrian women who are with child pray to Hoama and constantly recite the Hōm Yasht in order to have distinguished sons.

1993, W.B. Fischer, Ilya Gershevitch, Ehsan Yarshster, The Cambridge History of Iran, page 653:

(Zoroastrianism) Hypostatic divinity of the haoma plant.


omphalos

From Ancient Greek ὀμφαλός (omphalós, “navel”). Doublet of navel.

uder

An ancient religious stone artifact, or baetylus, used to denote the direction of the "center" of the world.


FLDS

Latter Day Saints
Latter-day Saint#English

Initialism of Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a Mormon denomination.

Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints


Prisca

Latin feminine form of the cognomen Priscus, from priscus (“old”).

Salute Prisca and Aquila, and the household of Onesiphorus.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 2 Timothy 4:19:

An alternative name for Priscilla, an early Christian.


Sampson

And Sampson went to Gaza, and saw there a harlot, and went in to her.

1844, Lancelot C. L. Brenton, The Septuagint version of the Old Testament, Judges 16, i:

2007, Travis Mashburn, Living Christianity, Xulon Press (publ.), page 82.
She agreed and then went to Sampson, asking for the secret of his great strength.

2016, William E. Blanchard, Preparing You for the Return of Jesus, RoseDog Books (publ.), page 21.
And Sampson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house stood, and on which it was borne up, one in his right hand and the other in his left.

A male given name from Hebrew of biblical origin.

An unincorporated community in Webster County, Missouri.

A place in the United States:
A town in Chippewa County, Wisconsin.

An unincorporated community in Oconto County, Wisconsin


Ashvamedha

Borrowed from Sanskrit अश्वमेध (áśva-medhá, “horse-sacrifice”), an oxytonic tatpuruṣa compound of अश्व (áśva, “horse”) and मेध (médha, “animal sacrifice”).

bor

A peculiar verse in the Yajurvedic Ashvamedha tells us that in the sacrifices that were performed by the devas, Agni was the horse, and he conquered the earth (23/17). The idea of using the Ashvamedha horse for extending the rule to the neighbouring territories arose from this.

1996, Jayant Gadkari, Society and Religion: From Rugveda to Puranas, page 32:

(Hinduism) One of the most important Vedic sacrificial rituals related to kings, and name of the Rigvedic hymns 1.162-163 which deal with horse sacrifice.


Kore

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek κόρη (kórē, “girl, maiden”).

lbor

(Greek mythology) The birth name of Persephone/Proserpina, the queen of the Underworld/Hades, and goddess of the seasons and of vegetation. She is the daughter of Zeus and Demeter; and the wife of Hades.


burqini

(Islam) A head-to-toe swimsuit, enabling women to conform to the Islamic dress code when bathing on a public beach.


Sapta Sindhu

From सप्त (sapta, “seven”) + सिन्धु (síndhu, “river, stream”). This expression in English incorporates a grammatical error: Sindhu is the nominative singular; used with "seven", the noun should, of course, be in the plural: Sindhava:/Sindhavas, सप्तसिंधव: (saptasiṃdhava:, “seven rivers”), which is the term used in Sanskrit.

The settlers in Sapta Sindhu composed the Rig Veda, the first of the Vedas, the ancient sacred writings of the Hindu religion.

2006, Marshall Cavendish Corporation, World and Its Peoples, page 316:

(Hinduism, India) The seven sacred rivers in Indian mythology, often referred to in Rigveda and in Zend Avesta. They are often located in the Punjab region in northwestern India / northern Pakistan.


Jahannam

Borrowed from Arabic جَهَنَّم (jahannam). Doublet of Gehenna and Gehinnom.

bor+

(Islam) Islamic concept of hell, where unfaithful Muslims not true to their religion will be punished, but will eventually be forgiven.


jivanmukta

Borrowed from Sanskrit जीवन्मुक्ति (jīvanmukti, “emancipation while still alive”).

(Hinduism) A person who, in the Advaita philosophy of Hinduism, has attained nirvikalpa samadhi — the realization of the Self, Parasiva — and is liberated from rebirth while living in a human body.

(Hinduism) A liberated being (not necessarily paramukta).


Hypnos

Borrowed from Ancient Greek Ὕπνος (Húpnos, literally “Sleep”).

bor

(Greek mythology) The god and personification of sleep. The son of Nyx and Erebus, twin brother of Thanatos, husband of Pasithea, and the father of the Oneiroi. His Roman counterpart is Somnus.


Huldah

And Hilkiah, and they that the king had appointed, went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvath, the son of Hasrah, keeper of the wardrobe; (now she dwelt in Jerusalem in the college:) and they spake to her to that effect.

(biblical) A prophetess in the Old Testament.


sweet hereafter

Lord, what thou doest noo, an' why,
We maunna seek to ken;
But sune the sweet hereafter comes,
An' thou wilt tell us then.

1885, Mary Lee Demarest, "The Pathway o' the Sea," in A Library of Religious Poetry by Philip Shaff and Arthur Gilman (eds.), Funk and Wagnalls, New York, page 885

Miss Lacy Stafford of Taylorville was struck by an Illinois Central train at the Sangamon street crossing at 3 o'clock and in the eyes of the spectators she was wafted directly into the sweet hereafter by lightning express.

1903, "Woman Roiled Into Ditch by Train," The Daily Review (Decatur, Illinois), 22 Mar.

Owing to his sugarcane habit, his stubby front teeth are all pretty much gone to the sweet hereafter.

2003, Barbara Kingsolver, The Poisonwood Bible, →ISBN, page 174:

(idiomatic) Heaven; paradise as enjoyed in the afterlife.


devadasi

From the Sanskrit देवदासी (devá-dāsī, “female servant of a deity”), from देव (devá, “deity, god”) and दासी (dāsī, “a female servant or slave”).

It would be a century before the daughter of another devadasi mesmerized audiences around the world.

2017, Sunil Khilnani, Incarnations, Penguin, page 372:

(Hinduism, historical) A girl who underwent the Hindu religious practice of being "married" to a deity. In addition to taking care of the temple, she learned and practiced Bharatanatyam and other classical Indian arts, and enjoyed high social status.


Petrine

en-adj

Petrine (comparative more Petrine, superlative most Petrine)

more Petrine (comparative)
most Petrine (superlative)

the Petrine Epistles

...the statement of Apost. Const. vi. 8, that his ordination was Pauline, rather than Petrine, according to the competing traditions of St. Epiphanus and Rufinus, in which case he is the particular link in the Pauline succession.

1889, Richard Frederick Littledale, The Petrine Claims: A Critical Inquiry, London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, →OL, page 199:

And thus, in this connection, is intruded upon us the narrative in the Petrine Gospel, which afterwards became famous, and according to which the Cross was borne to heaven with Christ at the Ascension.

1896, A. H. Keane, transl., The Antichrist Legend: A Chapter in Christian and Jewish Folklore, London: Hutchinson and Co., translation of original by Wilhelm Bousset, →OL, page 235:

At the same time the tinctures of the reversed Petrine cross on the field and the chief changed from red to blue.

1992, Duane L. C. M. Galles, “The Reform of Ecclesiastical Heraldry Revisited”, in The American Benedictine Review, volume 43, number 4, →ISSN, page 424:

The Swiss theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar takes this approach, arguing that in the church there is a Marian principle of holy obedience complementary to the Petrine principle of orderly hierarchical rule.

2000 June 17, Elizabeth A. Johnson, “Mary of Nazareth: Friend of God and Prophet”, in America, volume 182, number 21:

Of or pertaining to people named Peter, particularly Saint Peter or Peter the Great.


patrology

en-noun

patrology (countable and uncountable, plural patrologies)

(theology) the study of the lives and works (especially the writings) of the Church Fathers.


Samkhya

From Sanskrit सांख्य (sāṃkhya, “enumerating, reckoning up”).

uder

(Hinduism) One of the six schools of classical Indian philosophy.


Nyaya

From Sanskrit न्याय (ny-āyá, “syllogism, inference”).

(Hinduism) One of the six orthodox or astika schools of Hindu philosophy — specifically the school of logic.


nastika

Borrowed from Sanskrit नास्तिक (nāstika, “heterodox”), from नस्ति (nasti, “to not exist”), negative of अस्ति (asti, “exists”).

(Hinduism) Not astika, see there for more.


astika

From Sanskrit आस्तिक (āstika, “orthodox, believing, pious, faithful”), from अस्ति (asti, “to be, exist”) + -क (-ka).

bor

(Hinduism) A philosophical school or individual accepting certain tenets fundamental to Hinduism, by various definitions:

The existence of atman (roughly "soul").

The existence of ishvara (a supreme deity).


triune

PIE word
 *tréyes
From tri- + Latin unus (“one”).

Coordinate term: biune

Christians believe in a triune God, meaning that he is three hypostases in perfect unity.

1990, Mary Ann Fatula, The Triune God of Christian Faith, Liturgical Press (Michael Glazier Books), page 21,
To be Christian today thus means reflective and critical fidelity to the essential elements of our Christian heritage in scripture and tradition, yet in a way that enables us to respond to the ever new presence of the triune God active in our own experience and world.

2003, Jeffrey C. Pugh, Entertaining the Triune Mystery, Continuum International Publishing Group (Trinity Press International), page 80,
Because the triune God is seen in ways that reflect relationality, God's presence can be expressed in the world in such a way that gnostic separation of the world and God should not be allowed to be a central part of Christian belief.

And in a double movement, the descent of the eternal Son is the Triune God's movement to initiate and enable reconciliation decisively with humanity, which is then followed by the ascent of the human Christ to continue the enabled relationship with the Triune God.

2014, Dick O. Eugenio, Communion with the Triune God, Wipf and Stock, unnumbered page:

(chiefly religion, Christianity) Both three and one at the same time.


Shakti

From Sanskrit शक्ति (śákti, “power, energy”).

In yoga the feminine principle is Shakti, the Great Goddess experienced by all initiates of the Tantric process of transformation.

1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 115:

(Hinduism) The Hindu concept or personification of the divine feminine aspect, sometimes referred to as 'The Divine Mother'. Shakti represents the active, dynamic principles of feminine power.


Jedidiah

/ˌd͡ʒɛdɪˈdaɪə/

Borrowed from Hebrew יְדִידְיָה (“beloved of Yahweh”).


Nanna

Borrowed from Sumerian 𒀭𒋀𒆠 (ᵈnanna /Nanna/).

bor+

The god of the moon in Sumerian mythology.


Syntyche

From Ancient Greek Συντύχη (Suntúkhē, “fortunate”), from συν- (sun-, “with”) + τύχη (túkhē, “fate”).

prefix

I beseech Euodias, and beseech Syntyche, that they be of the same mind in the Lord.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Philippians 4:2:

(very rare, outside the Bible) A female given name from Ancient Greek.


rakshasa

A race of one-eyed beings / All feared and shunned / Rakshasa demon

2006, Mastodon (lyrics and music), “Circle of Cysquatch”:

(Hinduism) A member of a race of mythical fanged demons that eat human flesh and blood, somewhat like vampires.


Izanagi

Borrowed from Japanese 伊邪那岐 (いざなぎ, Izanagi).

(Japanese mythology, Shinto) A Japanese creator god; he is Izanami's elder brother and spouse, and the father of Amaterasu, Tsukuyomi, Susanoo and Kagutsuchi.


Izanami

Borrowed from Japanese 伊邪那美 (いざなみ, Izanami).

(Japanese mythology, Shinto) A Japanese creator goddess who is also (along with the Shinigami and Enma) a goddess of death and the underworld; she is Izanagi's younger sister and spouse, and the mother of Amaterasu, Tsukuyomi, Susanoo and Kagutsuchi.


Hieronymus

en-proper noun

Hieronymus (countable and uncountable, plural Hieronymuses)

From Latin Hierōnymus, from Ancient Greek Ἱερώνυμος (Hierṓnumos, “holy name”). Doublet of Jerome.

der

(Christianity) Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus, Saint Jerome.


Amaterasu

/ɑːmətɛɹˈɑːsuː/

Borrowed from Japanese 天照 (Amaterasu), from 天 (ama, “sky, the heavens”) + 照らす (terasu, “to illuminate something”).

(Japanese mythology, Shinto) The Japanese sun goddess, and most important Shinto deity; she is the daughter of Izanagi and Izanami and the sister of Susanoo, Tsukuyomi, Ōyamatsumi, and Kagutsuchi.


Savitr

From Sanskrit सवितृ (savitṛ, “stimulator, rouser, vivifier”).

bor

However, Savitṛ represents, as has been rightly pointed out by Sāyaṇa, the natural phenomenon of the setting and rising sun, whereas Sūrya represents the sun after it is risen and before it approaches the setting frame.

2003, Malati J. Shendge, The Civilized Demons: The Harappans in Rigveda, Abhinav Publications, →ISBN, page 319:

(Hinduism) A solar deity (Deva) and one of the Adityas. He is sometimes identified with, and at other times distinguished from, the chief Sun deity Surya.


osculatory

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-osculatory.wav

(Christianity) A religious tablet, usually carrying a representation of Christ or the Virgin Mary, which is kissed by the priest during the Mass ("kiss of peace"); it is then passed to others at the mass who also kiss it.


quindecim

From Medieval Latin quindecima (“15th”), from quindecim (“15”). In reference to 2-week periods, based upon the Roman and medieval practice of counting inclusively.

(chiefly Christianity, archaic) Synonym of quindene, the 14th day after a festival, the fortnight after a festival.


Surya

From Sanskrit सूर्य (sū́rya, “the sun or its deity”). Doublet of sun.

(Hinduism) The chief solar deity, one of the Adityas, son of Kasyapa and one of his wives Aditi, of Indra, or of Dyaus Pita (depending by the versions). Portrayed with golden arms and hair, Surya drives through the heaven in his triumphal chariot harnessed by seven horses or one horse with seven heads, which represent the seven colours of the rainbow or the seven chakras.


Rāhu

Transliteration of Sanskrit राहु (rāhu).

(Hinduism, Buddhism) The ascending lunar node. An asura and god of the solar eclipse.

(Tibetan Buddhism) A supernatural being in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, particularly the Nyingma lineage. Usually depicted as dark blue in colour and having nine heads one of which is that of a raven. He has a face in his belly the mouth of which swallows up the moon or sun during eclipses. He is master of the nine planets and the god of solar and lunar eclipses.


Ketu

(Hinduism) The descending lunar node. In Hindu mythology, Ketu is generally referred to as a "shadow" planet, believed to have a tremendous impact on human lives and also the whole creation.


bhakti

en-noun

bhakti (countable and uncountable, plural bhaktis)

It should be obvious by now that bhakti is not merely pious thoughts of "love" but rather fearless action. Nārada asks nothing less of the bhakta than complete surrender and complete dedication unto the will of Bhagavān. But if at any point one feels himself unable to reach the ideals taught by Nārada, he is not condemned. Lord Kṛṣṇa also says that if we cannot achieve the topmost surrender, then we should do what we can and try to progress gradually.

1991, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Nārada-bhakti-sūtra, The Secrets of Transcendental Love, page 114:

The offering of Bhakti is a specific activity, either mental or physical, through which a devotee can finally attain the knowledge of the Supreme Reality. So, Karma and Jñāna are not antagonistic to the Bhakti Mārga, rather, they are indispensable parts of it.

2004, Muhammad Sirajul Islam, Sufism and Bhakti, A Comparative Study, page 78:


Kamadeva

Borrowed from Sanskrit कामदेव (kā́ma-deva).

bor+

(Hinduism) The Hindu deity of love, son of the goddess Sri and the incarnation of Pradyumna, Krishna's son.


Vasu

Borrowed from Sanskrit वसु (vásu, “dwelling, dweller”).

bor

(Hinduism) Any of the attendant deities of Indra, and later Vishnu. They are eight elemental gods representing aspects of nature.


HO

en-noun

HO (countable and uncountable, plural HOs)


Makemake

(mythology) The creator deity in the mythology of Easter Island.


Euamerion

From Ancient Greek Εὐαμερίων (Euameríōn), from εὐ- (eu-) + ἁμἐρα (hamera) + -ίων (-íōn).

af

(Greek mythology) Alternative name for Telesphoros


en-proper-noun

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints#English

(religion, Christianity) Alternative form of Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints


church planter

(religion, chiefly Evangelical Christianity) A minister or organization that starts new congregations where none existed previously.


menologe

From French ménologe, from Latin mēnologium, q.v. Doublet of menologion, menologium, and menology.

doublet

(rare) Synonym of menologium, a monthly record, particularly in certain Christian contexts


menaion

From New Latin mēnaion, from Ancient Greek μηναῖος (mēnaîos, “lunar”).

der

The annual fixed liturgical cycle of services used in the Eastern Orthodox and Greek-Catholic Churches, containing a list of the services and large collection of liturgical texts for an entire month. Twelve volumes are usually offered for the year, as a set known as the menaia.

General Menaion

a book which contains services for each type of celebration with blank spaces for the name of the saint being celebrated.

Festal Menaion

an anthology which contains the texts for those Great Feasts of the Lord

the Theotokos which fall on the fixed cycle

and optionally feasts of the major saints


menology

Partially from meno- (“month-”) + -ology (“study, account”) and partially from anglicization of Medieval Latin mēnologium and Byzantine Greek μηνολόγιον (mēnológion), q.v. Doublet of menologion, menologium, and menologe.

doublet

In the Mart. of Donegal, this is the day of St. Comgall (Comhgall), placed in the Menology on the 27th June, as having no day.

1892, Richard Stanton, A Menology of England and Wales..., p. 645

The menology of the tenth century has the formula ...

1935, Stephen Langdon, Babylonian Menologies and the Semitic Calendars, page 86:

The duration of the rites of mourning over nine days is... supported by references in a Standard Babylonian menology...

2003, Andrew R. George, The Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic..., p. 53

The Menology of St Symeon mostly repeats earlier accounts but includes some small additions as well.

(often capitalized) Synonym of menologium, a monthly record, particularly in Assyriology and certain Christian contexts.


Menologium

The Menologium of Basil II is an important work for understanding the medieval Byzantine church.

Alternative letter-case form of menologium, particularly in reference to (Eastern Orthodoxy) specific editions of the menaia or synaxaria or (Roman Catholicism) biographical records of members of religious orders.


Sexet

(Egyptian mythology) Egyptian goddess of malevolent fire, sister of Bast, the bringer of ill-fortune


calotte

A skullcap worn by Roman Catholic priests.


Persis

Ancient Greek Περσίς (Persís, “a Persian woman”).

uder

Salute the beloved Persis, which laboured much in the Lord.

An early Christian, mentioned in the epistle to the Romans.


enhypostasia

Borrowed from Ecclesiastical Latin enhypostasia, from Ancient Greek ἐν (en, “in”) + ὑπόστασις (hupóstasis, “existence; essence; substance”) + -ία (-ía, suffix forming nouns). ὑπόστασις is in turn derived from ῠ̔πο- (hupo-, “below, under”) + στάσις (stásis, “standing”). Compare Ancient Greek ἐνυπόστατος (enupóstatos, “substantial”).
The word is analysable as en- + hypostasis + -ia.

cog

The anhypostasia, impersonality, or, to speak more accurately, the enhypostasia, of the human nature of Christ. This is a difficult point, but a necessary link in the orthodox doctrine of the one God-Man; for otherwise we must have two persons in Christ, and, after the incarnation, a fourth person, and that a human, in the divine Trinity. The impersonality of Christ's human nature, however, is not to be taken as absolute, but relative, as the following considerations will show. […] The divine nature is therefore the root and basis of the personality of Christ. […] And the human nature of Christ had no independent personality of its own, besides the divine; it had no existence at all before the incarnation, but began with this act, and was so incorporated with the pre-existent Logos-personality as to find in this alone its own full self-consciousness, and to be permeated and controlled by it in every stage of its development.

1867, Philip Schaff, “Theology. Development of the Ecumenical Orthodoxy.”, in History of the Christian Church, volumes III (From Constantine the Great to Gregory the Great, A.D. 311–600), New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner and Company, →OCLC, part III (The Christological Controversies), § 142 (The Orthodox Chrisology. Analysis and Criticism.), paragraph 7, pages 757–758:

The doctrine of the person of Christ is argued with greatest fullness, and he [John of Damascus] evinces no little ingenuity and dialectic skill in treating of the personal unity in Christ's twofold nature (which he conceived as enhypostasis, not anhypostasis, of the human nature in the Logos), […]

1872, John M'Clintock [i.e., John McClintock], James Strong, “John of Damascus”, in Cyclopædia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature, volume IV (H, I, J), New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, publishers, Franklin Square, →OCLC, pages 964–965:

By anhypostasia classical Christology asserted that in the assumptio carnis the human nature of Christ had no independent per se subsistence apart from the event of the incarnation, apart from the hypostatic union. By enhypostasia, however, it asserted that in the assumptio carnis the human nature of Christ was given a real and concrete subsistence within the hypostatic union—it was enhypostatic in the Word. Anhypostasia and enhypostasia are inseparable. In the incarnation the eternal Son assumed human nature into oneness with Himself, but in that assumption Jesus Christ is not only real man but a man.

1954 September, T[homas] F[orsyth] Torrance, “The Atonement and the Oneness of the Church”, in Scottish Journal of Theology, volume 7, number 3, Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 249; quoted in Thomas F. Torrance, “The Place of Christology in Biblical and Dogmatic Theology”, in Theology in Reconstruction, Eugene, Or.: Wipf and Stock, 1996 December 19, →ISBN, footnote 1, page 131:

When, for instance, theology speaks of Jesus' anhypostasis and his enhypostasis, these ontological terms must be understood in the light of the concrete ways in which Jesus acted and spoke in the name of God, the ways in which he maintained the distinctions between himself and God through his self-abnegation, and how he left others with no impression of pedantry or dogmatism.

1992, Wiel Logister, “In the Name of Jesus Christ: Christology and the Interreligious Dialogue”, in Catherine Cornille, Valeer Neckebrouck, editors, A Universal Faith?: Peoples, Cultures, Religions, and the Christ … Essays in Honor of Prof. Dr. Frank De Graeve (Louvain Theological & Pastoral Monographs; 9), Louvain: Peeters Press; [Grand Rapids, Mich.]: W[illiam] B. Eerdmans, →ISBN, pages 172–173:

Enhypostasia, a doctrine which arose later as a modification of anhypostasia, concedes that Jesus Christ did indeed have a human hypostasis, but it was taken up and included in the hypostasis of the Logos.

1998, John Macquarrie, “Two Traditional Ideas Evaluated”, in Christology Revisited, London: SCM Press, published 2003, →ISBN, page 45:

Del Colle [Ralph del Colle] introduces the concept of the enhypostasia of the Spirit. This is analogous to the two enhypostases of the Son [Jesus Christ]. First, the Son is generated by the Father immanently, and in the economy of God the Son as a human person comes through generation (from the Virgin's womb). But there is a second enhypostasis of the Son: "The eternal Son now incarnate … in his human nature undergoes an in-personing in the Spirit."

2006, Simon Chan, “Encountering the Triune God: Spirituality since the Azusa Street Revival”, in Harold D. Hunter, Cecil M. Robeck Jr., editors, The Azusa Street Revival and Its Legacy, Cleveland, Tenn.: Pathway Press, →ISBN; republished Eugene, Or.: Wipf and Stock, 2009 October 23, →ISBN, page 218:

(Christianity (Christology)) The state of the human nature of Jesus Christ being entirely dependent on, and not existing independently of, the divine nature of God as a whole (which is the hypostasis of the Holy Trinity comprising God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit), or individual persons of the Trinity such as the Father and the Holy Spirit.


acault

A mistranslation of Burmese အခြောက် (a.hkrauk /ăhcauʔ/, “dry article; homosexual man”), from အ (a. /ă/, noun-forming prefix) + ခြောက် (hkrauk /hcauʔ/, “dry”). Apparently introduced before 1987 by Coleman et al. (see quotation below) who had an "inability to speak the local languages" and a "lack of training in anthropology".

bor

According to a recent travelers' report (Coleman, Celgon, and Gooren, 1987), the hijra community of India (see this chapter) has a counterpart in Burma, where men who live as women are called acault (pronounced a·chow').

[1988, John Money, Gay, Straight, and In-Between, →ISBN, page 100:

Because Manguedon is the spirit who controls success and good fortune, acault become an important intermediary between those seeking good fortune and success and the -^([sic]) spirit god.

1990, Eli Coleman, “Paradigatic Changes in Our Understanding of Homosexuality”, in Sexology: An Independent Field, page 117:

A Burmese acault tells an ethnographer he is a woman only by his sexual role; otherwise, he expresses himself through his penis and its orgasms.

2000, Richard Grossinger, Embryogenesis: Species, Gender, and Identity, →ISBN, page 664:

Recall in any event that is not unusual, as Coleman et al. (1992:317) reported, for a male to have sexual relations with an acault or, presumably with someone in one of the other lexically marked subject positions, […]

2009, Michael G. Peletz, Gender Pluralism: Southeast Asia Since Early Modern Times, →ISBN, page 156:

A male who has special role in Myanmar folk religion and behaves in a way usually associated with women.


pentangle

From Middle English pentangel. By surface analysis, pent- + angle.


Syeda

Borrowed from Arabic سَيِّدَة (sayyida).
* (female given name): From Urdu سیدہ, from Arabic سَيِّدَة (sayyida)

(Islam) An honorific title borne by female descendants of the prophet Muhammad.


multitheism

But for rudeness of manners, idolatry, and multitheism, no people in the world ever went beyond them.

1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC, page 574:

This led to multitheism and idolatry, a condition which would have grown increasingly confused, had God not decided to give mankind some better direction.

1990, Edward Malcolm Batley, Catalyst of Enlightenment, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, page 317:

But I am convinced that it is time for us to understand all our theisms as aspects of a global multitheism.

2001, Diana L. Eck, "Honest to God:The Universe of Faith" in Marcus J. Borg, Ross Mackenzie, God at 2000, p. 48

By the unprecedented intensity of the finale's rhetoric, by the multitheism of its symbolism — the Greek mythic signposts, the Christian-medieval gestures embedded in the Andante maestoso, and the orientalism of the Alla marcia's "Turkish Music".

2003, Maynard Solomon, Late Beethoven: Music, Thought, Imagination, page 226:

The existence of multiple forms of theism, as in a society.


multitheistic

en-adj

multitheistic (comparative more multitheistic, superlative most multitheistic)

more multitheistic (comparative)
most multitheistic (superlative)

No ingenuity can show a method of constructing a pantheistic or multitheistic system, on any other base than that of revelation.

1889, English Mechanic and World of Science, page 441:

The people of Kaleva and Pohja do not represent primitiveness in this development, for with their varied occupations, highly-developed social systems and multitheistic religious concepts they already stand for a diverse culture.

1990, Lauri Honko, Religion, Myth, and Folklore in the World's Epics, page 176:

Since the purpose of the logo is to reach a multicultural and multitheistic audience, different color interpretations were considered.

2003, Gregory Thomas, How to Design Logos, Symbols and Icons, page 29:

Judaism was also monotheistic in a culture that that was multitheistic.

2006, Ron McDonald, The Spirituality of Community Life: When We Come 'Round Right, page 68:


Ahmadi

new religious movement
new religious movement

A follower of the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light (a new religious movement based on Twelver Shia Islam).


papish

papish (comparative more papish, superlative most papish)

more papish (comparative)
most papish (superlative)

(now Scotland, Ireland, chiefly derogatory) Roman Catholic.


papish

‘But how can he have any right to make us papishes?’ says the landlord.

1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, Folio Society, published 1973, page 442:

King William on a white horse crossing the Boyne is still their beau ideal and to shout 'To Hell With the Pope' and to stone the 'bloody papishes' is still the chief duty of a 'loyal' Belfast citizen.

1979, Dervla Murphy, Wheels Within Wheels, page 31:

(now Scotland, Ireland, chiefly derogatory) A Roman Catholic.


obnosis

Coined by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, apparently as a blend of observe + gnosis.

coined

Here you will find the Instructor's Code, Obnosis and the Tone Scale and one of the best descriptions of Assist processing ever published.

1958, Ability, Hubbard Association of Scientologists, International, page 12

Obnosis (observing the obvious) must be used at every moment to determine the best next step with any student.

1970, B. Robert Ross, A Parent's Guide to the Teaching of Reading: A Compilation of Old and New Methods of Teaching and a New View of the Reading Process: Upstat Pub. Co.

Hubbard created Scientology's language to be unique to its members. It includes words that are interpretations, or variations, of standard terms: "isness," for example, which Scientology's glossaries say, in essence, means "reality." But there are also words that are wholly made up, such as "obnosis," which means "observation of the obvious."

[2006 February 23, Janet Reitman, “Inside Scientology: Unlocking the complex code of America's most mysterious religion”, in Rolling Stone:


Copt

From French copte, from قُبْط (qobṭ, “Copts”), from Coptic ⲅⲩⲡⲧⲓⲟⲥ (guptios, “Egyptian”), ⲕⲩⲡⲧⲁⲓⲟⲥ (kuptaios, “Egyptian”), from Late Ancient Greek Αἰγύπτιος (Aigúptios), from earlier Αἴγυπτος (Aíguptos), from Egyptian Hwt-t:O1-kA:Z1-p:t-H-A40 (ḥwt-kꜣ-ptḥ, “Egypt; temple of Ptah's ka”). Doublet of Gypsy. More at Egypt.


paten

From Middle English patene, from Old French patene, from Latin patina, from Ancient Greek πατάνη (patánē). Doublet of patina, patine, and patena.

An enameled miniature of Christ is set in the center of a jeweled alabaster paten, the plate that holds the bread during Communion services.

1980, Colin Thubron, Seafarers: The Venetians, page 41:

(Christianity) The plate used to hold the host during the Eucharist.

(archaeology) Any shallow dish found in an archaeological site.


Sutratman

From Sanskrit sutra (“thread”) and atman (“self”).

(Hinduism) The "String Soul" or "Thread-Self": the cosmic soul, one aspect of the cosmic supreme being.


bar mitzvah

en-noun

bar mitzvah (plural bar mitzvahs or b'nai mitzvah)

bar mitzvahs (plural)
b'nai mitzvah (plural)

From Hebrew בר מצווה / בַּר מִצְוָה (literally “of the age of mitzvah”).

he-m

בַּר מִצְוָה

(Judaism) A Jewish coming of age ceremony for boys.


shidduch

en-noun

shidduch (plural shidduchs or shidduchim)

Borrowed from Yiddish שידוך (shídekh), deriving from Hebrew שִׁידּוּךְ (shidúkh, “matchmaking”).

der

(Judaism) A system of matchmaking in which Jewish singles are introduced to each other.


megachurch

Millions of Americans fell in love with the prosperity gospel and its new kind of preacher. Charming though not effusive, polished but not slick, these favored few could as easily have appeared on Piers Morgan Tonight as behind their megachurch Sunday pulpits.

2013, Kate Bowler, Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity Gospel, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 5:

A church with an atypically large congregation.


anythingarian

/ˌɛnɪθɪŋˈɛəɹɪən/

From anything + -arian, by analogy with unitarian, trinitarian, etc.

Such bifarious anythingarians, that always make their interest the standard of their religion.

ante''' 1704, The Works of Tom Brown, volume 3, page 97

Lady Smart. What Religion is he of?
Ld. Sparkiſh. Why he is an Anythingarian.
Lady Anſw. I believe, he has his Religion to chuſe, my Lord.

1738, Jonathan Swift, Polite Conversation, dialogue 1

They made puir Robbie Burns an anythingarian with their blethers.

1850, Charles Kingsley, chapter 22, in Alton Locke, Tailor and Poet:

(derogatory, religion) A person who does not profess any particular creed; an indifferentist.


Theravada

Transliteration of Pali theravāda, inherited from Sanskrit स्थविरवाद (sthaviravāda, literally “doctrine of the elders”), from स्थविर (sthavira, “elder”) + वाद (vāda, “doctrine”).

(Buddhism) A sect of Buddhism, whose teachings are based on Buddha's scriptures in the Pali canon, widely practised in Southeast Asia, mainly in Sri Lanka, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar. It tends to be conservative in contrast to the more liberal Mahayana, rejects reliance on celestial beings, and teaches non-universal salvation.


OFM

Haymo of Faversham, O.F.M.

John Duns Scotus ofm

Massimo Fusarelli, ofm

Order of Friars Minor
Order of Friars Minor#English

Ordo Fratrum Minorem
Ordo Fratrum Minorem

(Catholicism) Initialism of Order of Friars Minor or Ordo Fratrum Minorem, the Franciscans, a religious order of mendicant friars.


Order of Friars Minor

A calque of Medieval Latin Ordo Fratres Minores (“the Order of Lesser Brothers”), chosen by Francis of Assisi to inculcate humility in its members.

(Catholicism) The religious order of friars established by St Francis of Assisi.


witches' Sabbath

en-noun

witches' Sabbath (plural witches' Sabbaths)

The phrase is first attested in the seventeenth century, but was popularized only from the 20th century onwards.

A religious gathering of a Wiccan coven at a covenstead or circle


frum

en-adj

frum (comparative frummer, superlative frummest)

frummer (comparative)
frummest (superlative)

From Yiddish פֿרום (frum, “pious”). Related to German fromm and Dutch vroom.

I learned all about the role of the kibbutz in Israeli life. Not to mention the role of the Arab, the artist, the woman, the socialist and the frum Jew.

1979, Clive Sinclair, Hearts of Gold, Penguin, published 1983, page 45:

(Judaism) Pious, observant; committed to obeying all the laws of Judaism


Salesian

Salesian (comparative more Salesian, superlative most Salesian)

more Salesian (comparative)
most Salesian (superlative)

Of or pertaining to a Roman Catholic missionary society called the Salesians founded by Saint Francis of Sales in Turin.


speos

A tomb or temple carved from the solid rock


irmos

Each ode has its own meter and tune called an irmos (εἱρμός; plural irmoi), introduced in the first stanza and repeated. The second, third, and sixth odes are divided into two sections, with different irmoi, perhaps allowing Andrew a greater variety of chant melodies to break up what might otherwise become monotonous.

2014, Derek Krueger, Liturgical Subjects: Christian Ritual, Biblical Narrative, and the Formation of the Self in Byzantium:

(Christianity) The initial troparion of an ode of a canon.


Megaera

From Ancient Greek Μέγαιρα (Mégaira, “the jealous one”), from μεγαίρω (megaírō, “to grudge, envy”).

bor

(Greek mythology) One of the Furies, Erinyes in Greek mythology, the cause of jealousy and envy, who punishes people who commit crimes, especially marital infidelity.


tulpa

en-noun

tulpa (plural tulpa or tulpas or (often in sense 2) tulpae)

tulpa (plural)
tulpas (plural)
tulpae (often plural)

From Tibetan སྤྲུལ་པ (sprul pa, “emanation, magical creation”), equivalent to a calque of Sanskrit निर्मित (nirmita, “build”) or निर्माण (nirmāṇa, “build”).

bor

When the year was up, the tulpa began growing. It lost its fear of its master and began taking on new forms of its own. It ceased to run errands ....

1966, Nikos Kazantzakis, England: A Travel Journal, page 110:

(Buddhism, mysticism) A magical creature that attains corporeal reality, having been originally merely imaginary.

トゥルパ

magical creature that attains corporeal reality, having been imaginary


Anthropos

From Ancient Greek ἄνθρωπος (ánthrōpos).

(Gnosticism) The primordial man/humanity.


filial piety

The virtue of showing respect and doing good deeds for one's parents, elders, and ancestors, as understood in Confucian ethics and commonly observed in the East Asian cultural sphere.


anekantavada

/ˌɑːneɪkɑːntəˈvɑːdə/

Borrowed from Sanskrit अनेकान्तवाद (an-ekānta-vāda, “scepticism, non-absolutism”), a compound literally meaning "doctrine of non-exclusivity".

And, ultimately, anekantavada was not a doctrine of relativism: the blind men were, in the end, arguing over the same elephant.

2016, Sunil Khilnani, Incarnations, Penguin, published 2017, page 13:

(Jainism) The doctrine of many-sidedness, specifically that reality and truth have multiple aspects and demand diverse points of view.


yajna

en-noun

yajna (countable and uncountable, plural yajnas)

The visit to Pushkar is, however, a little more than the obligatory obeisance done at the site where Brahma carelessly dropped a lotus blossom as he was wondering where to perform a yagnya.

1997, Kiran Nagarkar, Cuckold, HarperCollins, published 2013, page 501:

(Hinduism) A ritual of sacrifice to the Devas.


Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (canonical)

en-au-Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.ogg

"This is a graph of the death rate from infectious disease in this country. The heroes of my field have slain one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. While the heroes of your field gathered in the desert to create a new one."

2015 May 4, Randall Munroe, xkcd (webcomic), Degree-Off:

(biblical) Four beings in Revelation 6:1–8 that bring about the Apocalypse, each embodied as a horseman riding a different-colored horse that represents a different aspect of the Apocalypse.

אַרְבַּעַת פָּרָשֵׁי הָאָפּוֹקָלִיפְּסָה

náhodeesdzáago dįltʼéego łį́į́ʼ bił níjééʼ


manducation

manducation (countable and uncountable, plural manducations)

a literal, corporal and oral manducation of the very substance of his flesh and blood

1590-1600, Richard Hooker, Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, volume V.lxvii.9:

(Christianity) The belief that eating the bread of Eucharist is eating the actual flesh of Jesus.


Yekke

From Yiddish יעקע (yeke). See Wikipedia.

(sometimes mildly derogatory) A Jew of German-speaking origin.


sedevacantism

The belief, held by a minority of Christians claiming to be traditionalist Catholics, that the present occupant of the Holy See is not the true pope and that the see has been vacant since the 1960s.

sédévacantisme

belief that actual pope is not a true and legitimated one


oremus

From Latin ōrēmus (“let us pray”, first person plural active subjunctive of ōrō), often used to introduce a prayer in the liturgy.

bor

first person plural active subjunctive of <i class="Latn mention" lang="la">ōrō</i>

The priest recited long oremuses in Latin, after which he said in the same language to the little seagull: Ingredere, Petre, in domum Domini.

1923, Pierre Loti, translated by W. P. Baines, A Tale of Brittany, page 144:

(Roman Catholicism) A liturgical prayer.


orans

(art, Christianity) A figure in an attitude of prayer, usually standing, with the elbows close to the sides of the body and with the hands outstretched sideways, palms up.

(Christianity) The posture or bodily attitude of such a figure.


nocturn

From Middle English nocturne, borrowed from Medieval Latin nocturna, noun use of the feminine form of Latin nocturnus (“nocturnal, of the night”), derived from nox (“night”).

der

(Christianity) The night office of the Christian liturgy of the Hours, such as is performed in monasteries.

(Christianity) A portion of the psalter used during nocturns.


Saint Barbara

The patron of armourers, military engineers, gunsmiths, miners and anyone else who worked with cannon and explosives.


Armenian Apostolic Church

the Armenian Apostolic Church (canonical)


catholicos

en-noun

catholicos (plural catholicoses or catholicoi)

catholicoses (plural)
catholicoi (plural)

/kəˈθɒlɪkəs/

From Ancient Greek καθολικός (katholikós). Doublet of catholic.

Kavad had quickly ordered that a new Catholicos should be chosen for the Church, ending a hiatus of twenty years in which Shah Khusrau had prevented the office being filled.

2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin, published 2010, page 252:

(Christianity) A high-ranking bishop or patriarch in certain Eastern Christian traditions.

ܐܲܒ݂ܵܐ ܕܐܲܒ݂ܵܗܵܬܹ̈ܐ

ʾaḇā d-ʾaḇāhātā


jodo

A borrowing of Japanese 浄土 (jōdo, literally “pure land”), q.v.

bor

(Japanese Buddhism) Synonym of pure land: the various realms of the buddhas and boddhisattvas.


logological

/ˌlɒɡ.əʊˈlɒd͡ʒ.ɪk.əl/

(theology, philosophy, rare) Of or pertaining to the doctrine of logos.

logologinen

theology: of or pertaining to the doctrine of logos


nether region

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-nether region.wav

At this instant old Roger Chillingworth thrust himself through the crowd—or, perhaps, so dark, disturbed, and evil was his look, he rose up out of some nether region.

1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, ch. 23:

None of them were sorry when Faust was duly consigned to the nether regions.

1890, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Firm of Girdlestone, ch. 25:

The other, dwarfed and prehensile, might in its uncanny silhouette have been an imp of darkness from the nether regions.

1921, William MacLeod Raine, Gunsight Pass, ch. 1:

(often pluralized) Hell; a realm beneath the surface of the earth conceived as the abode of the souls of the dead and, sometimes, as the abode of demons or evil spirits.


Vincentian

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

A citizen of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines


holy water

en-noun

holy water (usually uncountable, plural holy waters)

From Middle English holy water, haly water, hali water, holiwater, halywater, from Old English hāliġwæter (“holy water”), equivalent to holy + water.

None comes to this holy feaſt but they vvhoſe ſins are cleanſed in baptiſme, vvho are ſanctified in thoſe holy vvaters of regeneration, vvho have obedient ſouls, ears attentive to the Sermons of the Goſpel, and hearts open to the vvords of Chriſt.

1660, Jeremy Taylor, “Of Faith, as It is a Necessary Disposition to the Blessed Sacrament. Sect[ion] I. Of Catechumens or Unbaptized Persons.”, in The Worthy Communicant or A Discourse of the Nature, Effects, and Blessings Consequent to the Worthy Receiving of the Lords Supper […], London: […] R. Norton for John Martyn, James Allestry, and Thomas Dicas […], published 1661, →OCLC, page 199:

[W]ith our signs of the cross and holy waters, our crucifixes and prayers to the saints, our scapulars and medals, our so humiliating auricular confession

1889, Charles Paschal Telesphore Chiniquy, Fifty Years in the Church of Rome, page 307:

In a parallel way, when you came up from the font and its holy waters, you received chrismation and the mark with which Christ was chrismated.

1979, “The Catechesis of Cyril of Jerusalem”, in Lucien Deiss, Matthew J. O'Connell, transl., Springtime of the Liturgy:

(Christianity) In certain Christian churches, water that has been sanctified by a priest or bishop for the purpose of baptism or for the blessing of persons, places, or things.


Brahmana

Borrowed from Sanskrit ब्राह्मण (brā́hmaṇa). Doublet of brahmin.

(Hinduism) Any of several ancient Hindu religious prose texts that explain the relationship of the Vedas to the sacrificial ceremonies.


Shudra

Borrowed from Sanskrit शूद्र (śūdra), a variant of क्षुद्र (kṣudra, “small, diminutive”).

A Sudra knows that his lot in life has been cast by divine fiat, and he does not expect the perquisites of a Brahmin.

1951 October, Helen Mayer Hacker, “Women as Minority Group”, in Howard W. Odum, Katherine Jocher, editors, Social Forces, volume 30, number 1, Williams & Wilkins, →DOI, page 60:

A member of the Hindu varna (caste) of workers.