bell curve god

/ˈbɛl kɜːv ˌɡɒd/

He who prays to the Bell Curve God, will be granted the luck to pass the exams!

2011 November 28, Alvin Lim, ““Bell Curve God” Surfaces In Local University”, in Alvinology Media (AM) (blog), Singapore: Alvinology Media, retrieved 2017-11-01:

Some students in a local university who are sitting for their final examinations have reportedly resorted to and set up shrines to pray to a so-called 'Bell Curve God' for help.

2011 December 1, STUMPBO, “Who is this Bell Curve God?”, in Life of Lopsided 8 (blog), Singapore: Blogger, retrieved 2017-11-01:

It seems desperate undergraduates at a local university are willing to do whatever it takes to help them in their exams - including giving offerings to the “Bell Curve God.”

2012 January 25, Ng Kang Rui, “Desperate Undergrads Pray to 'Bell Curve God'”, in Kangaroo’s Corner (blog), Singapore: Blogger.com, retrieved 2017-11-01:

Upon exploring the Singaporean bell curve on the internet, I came across this comical photo of food offerings of oreos, noodles, and other goodies given to the "Bell Curve God". The paper on the image to the right reads: CURSED is he who enters without a food offering to the Bell Curve God!

2013 April 12, Amanda, “加油! Adding Oil to the Ominous Bell Curve”, in 12 Time Zones Away (blog), Singapore: Blogger, retrieved 2017-11-01:

This website is a tribute to the famous but elusive Bell Curve God that everyone has heard of but has never seen.

2013 July 31, Orbital: Project Gemini, “Bell Curve God”, in Orbital: Project Gemini (blog), Singapore: National University of Singapore, archived from the original on 2017-09-18:

Sign up for random events, meet new people, set up a bell curve God altar, skip classes, tell your professor you dislike the country he comes from (just kidding), sleep overnight in the library, party on Wednesdays when you have a Thursday morning class etc.

2014 March 17, Joshua Goh, “10 Things Every Singaporean Should Do Before Graduating University”, in The Smart Local Singapore (blog), Singapore: The Smart Local, retrieved 2017-11-01:

Haha! altar to the almighty bell curve god in NTU! - good luck to uni students for your exams!

2014 November 25, Hana Wong, ““Bell Curve God””, in SGAG (blog), Singapore: Facebook, retrieved 2017-11-01:

Even the Bell Curve God can’t grant your wish.

2015 May 16, Kintan Andanari, “5 “stunned like vegetable” reactions by young S’poreans as SIM forces exam retake”, in Mothership Singapore (blog), Singapore: Mothership, retrieved 2017-11-01:

"As students, we are subject to the omnipotent, inscrutable force that is the Bell Curve God. He is the arbitrary being that decides our grades," Dylan Lee Soon Yoong explains.

2016 March 3, Jody-Lan Castle, “Top 10 Exam Rituals from Stressed Students across Asia”, in BBC News, Singapore: BBC News:

The Bell Curve God is characterised as capable of granting “blessings” to those who worship and pray to it. Students pray for its intervention to not have their grades classified in the lower end of the curve. They pray for “deliverance” and seek reward in the form of grades “sustenance”.

2016 October, Lily Kong, “Mimicking Religion as Coping Strategy: The Emergence of the Bell-Curve God in Singapore.”, in Material Religion, volume 12, number 4, Singapore: Taylor & Francis (Routledge), →DOI, page 533:

Do you feel lost? Dejected? Are you worried about your upcoming tests and exams? Do you require the spiritual guidance of Our Lord the Bell Curve God, in His wisdom and beauty and everlasting Grace? Then close your eyes and chant this prayer, and all your troubles will be answered by Our Lord the Bell Curve God and washed away: Our Father, who art in heaven. Hallowed be Thy bell curve. Thy midyears come. Thy will be done in O’s as it is in A’s. Give us this day our daily A. And forgive us our subpasses. As we forgive those who give poor peer grading marks to us. Lead us not into them F9s, but deliver us our A1s, GPA 4.0. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

2017 May 15, “Singapore’s Very Own Bell Curve Prayer”, in Reddit Singapore (Usenet), retrieved 2017-11-01, message-ID <doctorwhybother98>:

In the end, the bell curve is not something within your control. However, with appropriate studying habits, you can secure a favourable position on the bell curve for yourself. Most importantly, stick to your study plan; put in consistent effort; and do your utmost. There is no replacement for hard work and practice, not even praying to the ‘bell curve gods’. So long as you put your best foot forward, the curve's always beatable, your desired results reachable.

2017 July 21, Geraldine Lee, “What Exactly is the Bell Curve? And How to Beat It.”, in Yodaa, Singapore: Yodaa.co, retrieved 2017-11-01:

And what of the nightmare that’s known as the exam period? When students are huddling by their textbooks and praying fervently to the bell curve god?

2017 September 15, Joey Lee, “Foodpanda Study Reveals Boom in University Food Delivery – Here’s What Students Love to Order”, in Business Insider, Singapore: Business Insider Singapore:

(Singapore, humorous) A notional deity having power over the bell curve grading system in which grades are adjusted to fit a normal distribution.


Pornocracy

Monsters of impurity, avaricious wretches, poisoners, have occupied the papal see. A learned bishop (Maret of the General Council) expresses himself with holy indignation in reference to the frightful enormities of the tenth century. This epoch deserves to be designated under the title of the Pornocracy; that is to say, the governmentof prostitutes, for Theodora, Marozia, and other ladies of rank at that time, placed on the pontifical throne their paramours and their sons, who were no better than themselves.

1870 July, Jean-Henri Merle d’Aubigné, “Art. VII.—Dr Merle D’Aubigne on the Council and Infallibility. The Council and Infallibility: An Address Delivered at Geneva, 10th December 1869, by M. Merle D’Aubigne, D.D. Paris: Michel Levy, 1870.”, in The British and Foreign Evangelical Review, volume XIX, number LXXIII, London: James Nisbet & Co., Berners Street; Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd, →OCLC, page 591:

(Roman Catholicism, historical) Alternative letter-case form of pornocracy.


love the sinner, hate the sin

(chiefly Christianity) Do not treat people badly because of their faults, but do not go so far as to accept or approve the faults themselves.


Sobek

bor+

<i class="Latn mention" lang="egy">sbk</i>

(Egyptian mythology) An ancient Egyptian deity associated with the crocodile.


syneisaktism

From Ancient Greek συνείσακτος (suneísaktos, “(adjective) introduced together; (noun) participant in syneisaktism”), from συνεισάγω (suneiságō, “to bring in together”), from συν- (sun-, “together”) + εἰσάγω (eiságō, “to bring in, introduce”).

bor

Elizabeth Clark argues cogently that syneisaktism provided a couple with a rare opportunity for friendship between the sexes.[…]John Chrysostom, for example, who wrote two treatises against syneisaktism, was also a powerful advocate for female virginity, which he occasionally presented as a means of escaping Eve's curse of subordination.

1993, Dyan Elliott, Spiritual Marriage: Sexual Abstinence in Medieval Wedlock, Princeton University Press, page 34:

John Chrysostom (d. 407) wrote two treatises on the practice of syneisaktism - spiritual marriage between male and female ascetics - which was popular and widespread after the second century. Some assert that it represented the solution to a practical problem; since few convents were available until the fifth century, syneisaktism gave female ascetics a place to live without going off into the desert.

1998, Kenneth B. Steinhauser, “The Aesthetics of Paradise: Images of Women in Christian Antiquity”, in Joseph Martos, Pierre Hégy, editors, Equal at the Creation: Sexism, Society, and Christian Thought, University of Toronto Press, page 55:

Some have read in this text the possibility of a form of syneisaktism, or “spiritual marriage,” which would have involved living together but would not have involved sexual activity. Paul clearly separates syneisaktism from getting married, which is why I am naming it here as a form of cohabitation.

2017, Jana Marguerite Bennett, Singleness and the Church: A New Theology of the Single Life, Oxford University Press, page 211:

(historical, religion, Christianity) The practice, from early Christian until mediaeval times, of a man and woman living together in a non-legalised relationship while observing vows of chastity.

spiritual marriage

practice of non-legalised chaste relationship


Tertullianist

2007, William Tabbernee, Fake Prophecy and Polluted Sacraments: Ecclesiastical and Imperial Reactions to Montanism, Koninklijke Brill (Brill), page 268,
Even Augustine's contact with the Tertullianists appears to have been slight. Could Augustine's assessment of the Tertullianists, therefore, have been inaccurate?

Christian learning must accordingly be Tertullianist learning. Tertullianist as well as Clementine — Clementine as well as Tertullianist.

2009, Nicholas Wolterstorff, edited by Terence Cuneo, Inquiring about God: Selected Essays, Volume 1, Cambridge University Press, page 303:

Augustine's indication that Tertullian himself founded the Tertullianists as a splinter group from the Carthaginian Montanists is unlikely. It is possible that the term ‘Tertullianist’ was a synonym for African Montanists, or that the Tertullianists were a sect within Carthaginian Montanism, or even that the Tertullianists did not identify themselves as Montanists at all.

2017, Julian Barr, Tertullian and the Unborn Child: Christian and Pagan Attitudes in Historical Perspective, Taylor & Francis (Routledge), page 8:

(historical, religion, Christianity) An adherent of the teachings of early Christian theologian Tertullian (Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus; c.155-c.240 CE).


sickular

en-adj

sickular (comparative more sickular, superlative most sickular)

more sickular (comparative)
most sickular (superlative)

'Sickular bigscreen operator!' screamed another, shaking his fist in the direction of the Congress dugout. Modi moved.

(India, derogatory, slang) Leftist; in Indian politics, a supposed secularist partaking in tokenism, or opposed to Hindu nationalism.


sickular

(India, derogatory, slang, politics) A leftist; in Indian politics, a secularist, either partaking in tokenism, or opposed to Hindu nationalism.


bhakt

kattar

towards strict and overtly-devout Hindus

andh bhakt

blind devotee; Indian politics; referring to a fervent supporter

Ram bhakt

devotee of Rama; politics; a worshipper of Rama or a fervent supporter of Hindutva

In commenting on these stories, Ganga Giri selects the virtues of suffering and sacrifice exhibited variously by the male bhakts as characteristic of renunciant bhakti.

2014, Antoinette Elizabeth DeNapoli, Real Sadhus Sing to God: Gender, Asceticism, and Vernacular Religion in Rajasthan, page 83:

Although Sankardeb himself may have had disciples in his close circle from different religions and castes, in Majuli the interpretation has become rigid — none of them allow Scheduled Caste or tribal people to become bhakts and live in the […]

2000, Sumita Ghose, Sanjoy's Assam: Diaries and Writings of Sanjoy Ghose:

In the case of Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, everything is His energy. So wherever the bhakta goes or whatever he perceives throughout the universe, he is reminded of the Lord. Moreover, this recognition is not merely an intellectual habit but a total, overpowering state of love.

1991, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, chapter 4, in Nārada-bhakti-sūtra, The Secrets of Transcendental Love:

(Hinduism) Someone who practises bhakti; a person who is devoted to God; a devotee; a worshipper; a religious disciple.

(derogatory, slang, religious slur) A devout Hindu.

Even if Modi didn't look closely at his tweets, his team and followers certainly did. If the Gandhi family had their political chamchas, Modi had his 'Internet Hindus' (or bhakts, as I called them).

2015, Rajdeep Sardesai, 2014: The Election That Changed India:

For example, I've met Modi myself and interviewed him twice. But these Modi bhakts might pray to him every morning, yet they'll never enjoy such access.

2016, Sonali Acharjee, Look Up: Social Media and the Addiction No One Is Talking About:

Our nation is divided into Modi Bhakts and Aaptards (#SorryCongress). This is why elections are also fought on the appeal of individuals rather than on the actions of the parties (#PaanchSaalKejriwal #AbkiBaarModiSarkar).

2017, Revant Himatsingka, Selfienomics: A Seriously Funny Guide to Living the Good Life:

(India, derogatory, politics, slang) An ardent right-wing Hindu nationalist netizen.

(India, derogatory, politics, slang) An ardent supporter of the Bharatiya Janata Party or its leader Narendra Modi.


tassawuf

Borrowed from Arabic تَصَوُّف (taṣawwuf)


katechon

Borrowed from Ancient Greek κατέχον (katékhon, “that which withholds”) or Ancient Greek κατέχων (katékhōn, “the one who withholds”).

der

(theology) Someone or something (of disputed identity) whose removal is necessary before the Antichrist can be fully manifested, according to 2 Thessalonians 2:6-7 in the Bible.


rural dean

(Christianity) A dean who, under the bishop, has the special care and inspection of the clergy in certain parishes.


supernatural selection

(religion) A process by which heritable traits are given or planned by a higher power, as distinguished from natural selection.


prosopon

From Ancient Greek πρόσωπον (prósōpon, “face, mask, person”).

uder

(theology) The self-manifestation of an individual.


earth mother

(paganism) Alternative letter-case form of Earth Mother


Fifth Monarchism

(historical) The beliefs of the Fifth Monarchists.


Fifth Monarchist

en-noun

Fifth Monarchist (plural Fifth Monarchists)

In reference to a prophecy in the Book of Daniel that four ancient monarchies (Babylonian, Persian, Macedonian, and Roman) would precede the kingdom of Christ.

(historical, Christianity) A member of an extreme Puritan sect active from 1649 to 1660.


Amida

A borrowing of Japanese 阿弥陀 (Amida), q.v.

(Buddhism) Synonym of Amitābha, the most important buddha of the Pure Land sect.


hounfour

A stretch of straw mats is laid on the ground leading from the door of the hounfor.

1953, Maya Deren, Divine Horsemen, McPherson & Company, published 2004, page 47:

I arrived around ten and was taken into the peristyle, the roofed court of the hounfour, and was led around a semicircle of tables to the one where Beauvoir sat at the head.

1985, Wade Davis, The Serpent and the Rainbow, Simon & Schuster, page 47:

In the afternoon, Magda and I went out to purchase some gifts: perfume for Ezili and a bottle of rum for the ounfò.

1995, Marilyn Houlberg, in Cosentino (ed.), Sacred Arts of Haitian Vodou, South Sea International Press 1998, p. 276

Because her Western science has failed to restore Jessica to health, Betsy secretly takes her charge to see the houngan priest at the hounfour for help.

2011, Kyle William Bishop, American Zombie Gothic, page 88:


Haskalic

Pertaining to the Haskalah (relating to the Jewish Enlightenment movement).


Haskalah

bor

Hebrew הַשְׂכָּלָה

The Jewish Enlightenment, an Enlightenment movement among European Jewry.


rantistirion

Borrowed from Byzantine Greek ῥαντιστήριον (rhantistḗrion), from ῥαντίζω (rhantízō) (a late form of ῥαίνω (rhaínō, “to sprinkle, purify”), from Proto-Indo-European *weri) + -ῐον (-ion, “suffix forming diminutive nouns”).

ῥαντιστήριον

The Kastrinsios was charged with military duties and was responsible for a military unit (similar to that of a captain of the guard). When the Office became ecclesiastical in nature it was charged with the storage and safe keeping of ecclesiastical supplies and assisted in the vesting of the hierarchs. He would also bestow the divine blessing upon the congregation by sprinkling from the randistirion, and proclaim the arrival of His All Holiness the Patriarch with, "Evlogison Thespota" (Master Give The Blessing).

2001, Aspasia Smith, editor, Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, millennium edition, New York, N.Y.: Order of St. Andrew the Apostle, →OCLC, page 72:

The priest stands in front of the Kouvouklion throughout the Encomia. At the Third Stasis when the verse "Eranan ton Tafon ai miroforoi mira lian proi elthousai – early in the morning the myrrh-bearers came to Thee and sprinkled myrrh upon Thy tomb" is sung the priest sprinkles the Epitaphios with rosewater, using the rantistirion (sprinkler).

[2003], Alkiviadis Calivas, “Great and Holy Saturday”, in Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, archived from the original on 2017-05-23:

After joining with Archdeacon Panteleimon Papadopoulos and Deacon Eleftherios Constantine in chanting the "Feast of the Cross" – "The cross is the glory of the angels, and the defeat of the demons" – Archbishop Demetrios sanctified the steel cross with water from a golden rantistirion, or sprinkler.

2016 November 29, David W. Dunlap, “Cross takes its place, temporarily, atop shrine at World Trade Center”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 2017-07-11:

Archbishop Demetrios joined Deacon Eleftherios Constantine and Archdeacon Panteleimon Papadopoulos in chanting "Feast of the Cross." The Archbishop then sanctified this steel cross with water poured from a golden sprinkler or rantistirion.

2016 November 30, Nathan Glover, “Christian cross tops Saint Nicholas National Shrine at World Trade Center”, in World Religion News, archived from the original on 2016-12-02:

(Eastern Orthodoxy) A ritual sprinkler used in some Christian rites.


zombie's cucumber

After the baptism, or sometimes the next day, he or she is made to eat a paste containing a strong dose of a potent psychoactive drug, the zombi's cucumber, which brings on a state of disorientation and amnesia.

1985, Wade Davis, The Serpent and the Rainbow, Simon & Schuster, page 187:

“Your soul will answer, you see. And they'll feed you the zombie's cucumber. You ain't got no choice but to eat it.”

2013, Arielle Crowell, Deadly Magnolia, page 210:

It seemed to him that he was […] surrendering all agency and becoming hers to command, as if she were a Haitian bokor and he at lunch at Bergdorf Goodman had been administered the so-called zombie's cucumber which confused his thought processes and made him her slave for life.

2017, Salman Rushdie, The Golden House, Jonathan Cape, published 2017, page 180:

Datura stramonium
Datura stramonium#Translingual

Jimsonweed (Datura stramonium), as used in Haiti.


father superior

en-noun

father superior (plural fathers superior or father superiors)

fathers superior (plural)
father superiors (plural)

a friar or monk in charge of a monastery, priory or convent; an abbot or a prior


Ghede

In Haiti, the Gede are the most numerous among all the Iwa.

1996, Gerdès Fleurant, Dancing Spirits, page 103:

As life ends in death, so does a fet end with homage to the Bawon and Brigitte, the king and queen of the graveyard, and their servants, the Ghede.

2007, Kevin Filan, The Haitian Vodou Handbook, Destiny Books, page 31:

Ghede loa are boisterous and have a healthy sexual appetite.

2012, Michael R Hall, Historical Dictionary of Haiti, page 120:

In Haitian voodoo, a class of loa generally associated with death.


potomitan

From Haitian Creole potomitan, and its source, French poteau mitan (“central post”).

Around this poteau-mitan revolve the ritual movements and the dance; at its base the offerings are placed; and through it the loa enter the peristyle.

1953, Maya Deren, Divine Horsemen, McPherson & Company, published 2004, page 36:

Across from us two young men were setting up a battery of drums; they cast furtive glances at Rachel as she cracked open a bottle of rum, tipped it three times toward the poteau mitan, and took a drink.

1985, Wade Davis, The Serpent and the Rainbow, Simon & Schuster, page 226:

Next, swinging a censer, Divié blessed the poto mitan and all the ounsis who raised their skirts and swished them around to get the full effect of the incense.

1995, Marilyn Houlberg, in Cosentino (ed.), Sacred Arts of Haitian Vodou, South Sea International Press 1998, p. 277

The poteau-mitan is a ladder between Heaven and Earth, a pathway by which the ancestors can rise from below and the spirits descend from above.

2007, Kevin Filan, The Haitian Vodou Handbook, Destiny Books, page 36:

The Lwa are believed to ascend or descend through the potomitan, which is therefore seen as a magical axis.

2009, Molefi Kete Asante, Ama Mazama, editors, Encyclopedia of African Religion, volume 1, page 394:

A sacramental post or pillar in the middle of the peristyle in front of a voodoo temple, used as the focus of certain rituals.


Nago

Nagos (plural)
Nagoes (plural)
Nago (plural)

From Ewe Anagó (“a Yoruba”), from Yoruba Ànàgó (“Yoruba from Abeokuta Province, Nigeria”).

uder

The Nago and Petwo lwa are honored with Florida water.

2007, Kevin Filan, The Haitian Vodou Handbook, Destiny Books, page 54:

The colors red and blue are frequently worn during Nago rite Voodoo ceremonies.

2012, Michael R Hall, Historical Dictionary of Haiti, page 181:

In Haitian voodoo, a class of loa of Yoruba origin.


maskilic

(Judaism) Of or related to the maskilim.


langaj

From Haitian Creole langaj, from French langage (“language”). Doublet of language.

Though used only by initiates, some passages in langaj emphasize sounds in a fashion that appeals to the ears of the profane as well, even when no translation is accessible as in most of the following examples.

2003, Marie-Jose Alcide Saint-Lot, Vodou, A Sacred Theater, page 172:

The langaj used for activation and the specific combinations required for a ceremony are initiatory secrets.

2007, Kevin Filan, The Haitian Vodou Handbook, Destiny Books, page 41:

He and his assistant, a bigger, stronger, younger man, are both singing, bent over the bowl, in langage, which is a mix of slavery-era African dialects combined with Creole; it's used only in voodoo ritual and is one of the world's few remaining wholly sacred languages.

2013, Amy Wilentz, Farewell, Fred Voodoo, Simon & Schuster, page 196:

(voodoo) A sacred or incantatory language used in Haitian voodoo rituals.


eradicationism

From eradication + -ism. Coined around 1900 by people from the circle of Dwight L. Moody.

The root error of eradicationism of the flesh has room to grow only in the false conception of "flesh," as a mere tendency to evil quite apart from the natural body.

1901 October, Cyrus Ingerson Scofield, “Biblical Notes and Queries”, in Record of Christian Work, volume 20, page 832:

(Protestantism, derogatory) Strict holiness; a radical, Wesleyan holiness teaching that considers that sin is or will be completely eliminated from true believers (originally used only by opponents)


cathisma

en-noun

cathisma (plural cathismata or cathismas)

From Ancient Greek κάθισμα (káthisma, “sitting down”).

der

(Christianity) A portion of the psalter; a troparion or short hymn used as a response.


raven-messenger

From raven + messenger. From the Biblical story of Noah, who released a raven after a flood to see if it had receded, but the bird did not return in a timely fashion.

A messenger or news-bringer who takes too long to arrive.


yogibogeybox

Compound of yogi + bogey + box. Coined by Irish novelist and poet James Joyce in his 1922 novel Ulysses.

coinage

Yeats, like AE, though not so fatuously, stood for the whirlpool, Madame Blavatsky and the yogibogeybox.

1968, John Anthony Burgess Wilson, Urgent Copy, page 63:

For him the yogibogeybox could offer nothing so good as the vegetable world.

1972, Richard Ellmann Goldsmith, Ulysses on the Liffey, →ISBN, page 16:

"They are saying" — it was Prof. Fewstone, of course, sidling up to Miss Thisbite with his overfilled shirt and yogibogeybox-shaped head, the strange hairdressing of which gave him a big roach in front and a curled effect at the rear which he tucked under in a roll.

1981, Alexander Theroux, Darconville's cat, page 199:

There is a period during which the children hear their mother denouncing "that woman" through closed doors, but the rival turns out to be only Mary Baker Eddy, in whose Boston yogibogeybox Walter had at last found a spiritual home.

1990, Benjamin Lawrence Reid, Necessary lives: biographical reflections, page 109:

Ellmann reports a more elaborate and nastier prank that Joyce and Gogarty actually perpetrated in the 'yogibogeybox' rooms of the Hermetic Society on Dawson Street, and he attributes to this prank the historical A.E.'s refusal to include Joyce in his 1904 collection titled New Songs, a Lyric Selection; Made by AE from Poems by Padraic Colum, Eva Gore-Booth, thomas Koehler, Alice Milligan, Susant Mitchell, Seamus O'Sullivan, George Roberts, and Ella Young (Gifford 212).

2011, M. Norris, Virgin and Veteran Readings of Ulysses, →ISBN:

In a word, the 1898 Literary Ideals in Ireland discussion of French Symbolism exposed Yeats's Magic in Ireland, where it was as suspect as Russell's yogibogeybox Mysticism was harmless.

2012, Fran Brearton, Alan Gillis, The Oxford Handbook of Modern Irish Poetry, →ISBN, page 30:

A container for a spiritualist’s accessories.


mixed chalice

(Christianity) The chalice prepared for the Eucharist, containing wine mixed with water.


apocalyptic number

en-noun

apocalyptic number (plural apocalyptic numbers)


Keswickism

(Protestantism, derogatory) The religious practices associated with the Keswick Convention, in particular the holiness doctrine that also asserts that full perfection in human life is prevented by sin.


baptism of blood

baptism of blood (countable and uncountable, plural baptisms of blood)


Keswickian

en-adj

Keswickian (comparative more Keswickian, superlative most Keswickian)

more Keswickian (comparative)
most Keswickian (superlative)

(Christianity) Of or relating to the Keswick Convention.


Keswickian

(Christianity) One who supports the principles of the Keswick Convention.


sekos

In this last-mentioned chamber there is a central doorway, leading to the holy recess, or sekos; and two other doorways also communicate with the two ends of a gallery which runs round the sekos.

1854, Jamees Talboys Wheeler, The geography of Herodotus, page 371:

(historical) A sacred enclosure, sanctuary or cella in an ancient Greek temple.


anhypostasia

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ἀνῠποστασία (anupostasía), from ἀνῠπόστᾰσῐς (anupóstasis, “unsubstantiality”) + -ίᾱ (-íā, suffix forming nouns). ἀνῠπόστᾰσῐς is derived from ἀν- (an-) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *n̥- (“un-”)) + ὑπόστᾰσῐς (hupóstasis, “existence; essence; substance”) (from ῠ̔πο- (hupo-, “sub-”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *upo (“below, under”)) + στάσις (stásis, “standing”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *stéh₂tis (“position, standing”))). By surface analysis, an- + hypostasis + -ia.

surf

[H]e [Henry Liddon] observes, "The anhypostasia (impersonality) of our Lord's humanity is a result of the hypostatic union: to deny it is to assert that there are two persons in Christ, or else deny that he is more than man. At his Incarnation, the Eternal Word took on him human nature, not a human personality."

Henry Parry Liddon (1867) “Lecture I. The Question before Us.”, in The Divinity of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; Eight Lectures Preached before the University of Oxford, in the Year 1866, on the Foundation of the Late Rev. John Bampton, M.A. Canon of Salisbury, London, Oxford, Cambridge: Rivingtons, →OCLC, section III.1 (The Catholic Answer […] Jealously Guards the Truth of Christ’s Manhood), footnote g, page 34

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:

‘Anhypostasia’ describes the conviction that the human nature of the incarnate Christ did not have a personal centre of subsistence, but was rather incorporated into the person of the eternal Word with which it was united at the incarnation. […] Thus ‘anhypostasia’ is a way of articulating the fact that Jesus is, as it were, so totally taken up with his proclamation of the Kingdom of God that his whole being could be defined by reference to that Kingdom.

1986, J[ohn] B[ainbridge] Webster, “Christology: Exegesis and Dogmatics”, in Eberhard Jüngel: An Introduction to His Theology, 1st paperback edition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 34:

Anhypostasia (the word means literally the ‘state of being without a hypostasis’) is the doctrine that although Jesus Christ had two natures, a divine and a human (as [the Council of] Chalcedon teaches), these ‘concur’ or are united in a single person (hypostasis), and this person is the divine Logos, so that the human hypostasis is superseded and replaced by the hypostasis of the divine Logos. Jesus Christ is therefore without a human hypostasis.

1998, John Macquarrie, “Two Traditional Ideas Evaluated”, in Christology Revisited, London: SCM Press, published 2003, →ISBN, pages 44–45:

Anhypostasia is the doctrine of the impersonality of Christ's humanity. That is, Christ's human nature does not possess a hypostasis or personhood in its own right. […] Christ's humanity is anhypostatic, then, in the sense that the Word did not unite himself with a previously existing human being. It is because he unites himself with human nature as such that the incarnation is of universal significance to all human beings.

2013, David R. Law, “The Nature of Kenotic Christology”, in Kierkegaard’s Kenotic Christology, Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 46:

[I]t was in view of a weakening emphasis on Jesus' individuality, on his particular humanity, in part stimulated by the fights against Arianism and Adoptionism, that the notion of Christ's impersonal humanity took hold. Two theological words were used to try to overcome the problem: anhypostasis, which refers to the divinity of Jesus' person, and enhypostasis, which insists that, nevertheless, Jesus was truly a human being. The anhypostasis was meant to protect the view that if the Word had not become flesh, Jesus would not have existed. The person of Jesus, in other words, lay in the Logos.

2015, Andrew Purves, “Christology: The Mystery of Christ—the Homoousion and the Hypostatic Union”, in Exploring Christology & Atonement: Conversations with John McLeod Campbell, H. R. Mackintosh and T. F. Torrance, Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, →ISBN, page 90:

(Christianity (Christology)) The quality of Jesus Christ's humanity, such that it has its existence entirely from the hypostatic union, rather than from any independent human personhood (or hypostasis). The concept does not deny Jesus's personhood, but denies that Jesus's humanity has any personhood apart from the one hypostasis in which his humanity and divinity are united.

Magny-les-Hameaux
Musée national de Port-Royal des Champs
Philippe de Champaigne


zeroa

(Judaism) The bone of a lamb shank, laid on a platter as one of five symbolic foods at Passover.


Zeroah

From Hebrew זְרוֹעַ (z'róa', literally “arm”).

bor

The strength and might we see in Moses is a picture of the Messiah who is the "Right hand of G-d, known as the Zeroah'.

2008, K.C. Stricker, Coming Out of Egypt: The Journey Out of Idolatry Begins, →ISBN:

Today, take part in the power of the Zeroah. Let go to apprehend, surrender to overcome, and die to yourself that you might find life.

2016, Jonathan Cahn, The Book of Mysteries, →ISBN, page 37:

Then God showed salvation to the entire earth through the Zeroah.

2017, Christine Graef, The Jewish Concern for the Church, →ISBN:

(Evangelical Christianity) The Messiah, strength of God, or spirit of sacrifice.


houngenikon

The houngenikon thereupon starts off the song, the drums and the chorus join in and when it is ended the houngan inquires: “Are you satisfied?”

1953, Maya Deren, Divine Horsemen, McPherson & Company, published 2004, page 51:

The drums changed and the Houngenikon came dancing on to the floor, holding a vessel filled with some burning liquid from which sprang blue and yellow flames.

Sometimes Bienaimé nods in the direction of a particularly noisy racket, and the houngenikon flicks at those kids with his whip.

I was told that the Vodou priest Cesar had had a serious fight with Nicole, the ounjenikon, mistress of song, of his temple.

1995, Karen McCarthy Brown, in Cosentino (ed.), Sacred Arts of Haitian Vodou, South Sea International Press 1998, p. 211

(voodoo) The leader of singing in a voodoo ceremony.


tahor

There are also observations in the Talmud that, e.g., tanners stink. However, odor doesn't prevent a person from becoming tahor.

2011 May 31, Yisroel Markov, “Leftwing anti-semitism”, in soc.culture.jewish.moderated (Usenet):


met tet

From Haitian Creole mèt tèt, from French maître (“master”) + tête (“head”).

While his physical heritage may show resemblance to one parent or the other, in infancy, his deities, including the maît-tête, become manifest only with maturity and establish their special position.

1953, Maya Daren, The Divine Horsemen, McPherson & Company, published 2004, page 71:

The Vodou system of identifying each person's mèt tèt amounts to a method for personality typing, and this system is of great significance for understanding the moral force field of Haitian Vodou.

2000, Nancy M. Martin, Joseph Runzo, The Meaning of Life in the World's Religions, page 241:

Outside Haiti, where Vodou ceremonies are held less frequently and possession is an aberration, not a commonplace, it is more difficult to determine which lwa is your met tet.

2006, Kenaz Filan, The Haitian Vodou Handbook:

(voodoo) The loa with whom a Vodouisant has a particular connection, and with whom they specially identify.


nipter

From Ancient Greek νιπτήρ (niptḗr, “basin”).

(Christianity) The ecclesiastical ceremony of washing the feet; maundy.


work of necessity

en-noun

work of necessity (countable and uncountable, plural works of necessity)

(Christianity, Judaism) Work that is sufficiently important to be done on the Sabbath, despite the usual prohibitions against working on that day.


laplas

From Haitian Creole laplas, from French la place.

The la-place is, in a sense, master of ceremonies for the houngan.

1953, Maya Deren, Divine Horsemen, McPherson & Company, published 2004, page 156:

The laplas and the two flag bearers followed Divié all around the poto mitan a number of times as he did this.

1995, Marilyn Houlberg, in Cosentino (ed.), Sacred Arts of Haitian Vodou, South Sea International Press 1998, p. 277

The reine dwapo and the laplas swing the flags and the sword and salute the cardinal points and the congregation.

2007, Kevin Filan, The Haitian Vodou Handbook, Destiny Books, page 48:

(voodoo) The assistant to a houngan or mambo.


chiliocosm

From chilia- + Ancient Greek κόσμος (kósmos, “world”).

It is he who in the Fa houa king is called the Lord of the Savaloka, the great Brahma, who governs the grand chiliocosm, that is the greatest of the three aggregations of universes, containing a thousand million of suns, of Sumerus, and quadruple continents such as we behold.

1848, Faxian, Abel Rémusat, & Julius von Klaproth, The Pilgrimage of Fa Hian, page 131:

Beyond one such chiliocosm, there lies another and so on to endless. All chiliocosms alike are under the domination of the Supreme Law of Nature of the Law of Karma.

2003, Pram Nguyen, The Ultimate Theory of the Universe, →ISBN, page 233:

It has the similar meaning with a poem written by William Blake, a British poet: To See a World in a Grain of Sand, And a Heaven in a Wild Flower, Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand, And Eternity in an hour. So, a better translation is put forward: A tiny flower represents a chiliocosm, as a single tree covers the bodhi.

2015, Ford Lumban Gaol, Interdisciplinary Behavior and Social Sciences, →ISBN:

The first order chiliocosm encompasses one thousand worlds, each of them identically structured, with Mount Meru at the center, surrounded by four major continents and eight subcontinents. The second order chiliocosm has one thousand times as many worlds as the first, and the third order chiliocosm has one thousand times as many worlds as the second.

2016, Text, History, and Philosophy: Abhidharma across Buddhist Scholastic Traditions, →ISBN, page 319:


Plymouthism

(religion) The beliefs of the Plymouth Brethren, a conservative evangelical Christian movement.

Plymouth Brethren

Exclusive Brethren (Darbyites); Open Brethren (Christian Brethren)

Assemblies Jehovah Shammah

sometimes considered a subset of Open Brethren


Antlered God

(Wicca) The second major supernatural figure in the Wiccan religion, a triune god equal to the Goddess, split into the aspects of Father, Master, and the Sage.


krypsis

(theology) The doctrine that Christ, during His state of humiliation, continued to possess in a veiled way the divine attributes of omnipotence, omniscience, etc.


shammatha

(Judaism, historical) The most severe form of excommunication among the ancient Jews.


Petrinism

(Christianity) The Tübingen theory of F. C. Baur (1792-1860) and his school, of a doctrinal trend in primitive Christianity towards Judaism, ascribed to Peter and his party in opposition to Paulinism.


Star of Bethlehem

(biblical) The bright star in the Gospel of Matthew that lead the "wise men from the East" to travel to Bethlehem.


Irad

And unto Enoch was born Irad: and Irad begat Mehujael: and Mehujael begat Methusael: and Methusael begat Lamech.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 4:18:


Mehujael

der

Hebrew מחויאל


Methusael

Hebrew מתושאל

And to Enoch was born Irad: and Irad begat Mehujael: and Mehujael begat Methusael: and Methusael begat Lamech.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 3:18:


Satmar

From Yiddish סאַטמאַר (satmar), from Hungarian Szatmár, the name of the city now known as Satu Mare. Doublet of Satu Mare.

An Hasidic Jewish dynasty, and the religious movement that follows it.


limitarianism

(Christianity) The doctrine that Christ's atonement applies only to the elect.


Huntingdonian

(Christianity) A member of the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion, a small society of evangelical churches, founded in 1783 by Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon, as a result of the Evangelical Revival.


theothanatology

en-noun

theothanatology (usually uncountable, plural theothanatologies)

It is no wonder that so many have felt humanity should overthrow such a God and be happier without him. Much of the theothanatology of the 1960s expressed optimism that civilization - particularly American civilization - was ready to do so at last.

1993, Marianthe Colakis, The classics in the American theater of the 1960s and early 1970s:

(philosophy, theology) A range of philosophical and theological explorations of the idea that God may be dead.


unipersonality

the unipersonality of Christ

(theology) The quality of being a single person.


be gathered to one's fathers

en-verb

be<is,being,was,been> gathered to one's fathers

be gathered to one's fathers (third-person singular simple present is gathered to one's fathers, present participle being gathered to one's fathers, simple past was gathered to one's fathers, past participle been gathered to one's fathers)

is gathered to one's fathers (present singular third-person)
being gathered to one's fathers (participle present)
was gathered to one's fathers (past)
been gathered to one's fathers (participle past)

/biː ˈɡæðəd tuː wʌnz ˈfɑːðəz/

/bi ˈɡæðɚd tə wʌnz ˈfɑðɚz/

From various passages in the Bible, including Judges 2:10, and 1 Maccabees 2:69 in the Apocrypha (see the quotations), from
From Biblical Hebrew נֶאֶסְפוּ אֶל-אֲבוֹתָיו (neʾespū ʾel-ʾăḇôṯâw) and Koine Greek προσετέθη πρὸς τοὺς πατέρας αὐτοῦ (prosetéthē pròs toùs patéras autoû, Apocrypha).

der

נֶאֶסְפוּ אֶל-אֲבוֹתָיו

neʾespū ʾel-ʾăḇôṯâw

προσετέθη πρὸς τοὺς πατέρας αὐτοῦ

And alſo all that generacion was gathered vnto their fathers, and an other generacion aroſe after them, which nether knewe the Lord, nor yet the workes, which he had done for Iſraél.

[1560, [William Whittingham et al., transl.], The Bible and Holy Scriptures Conteyned in the Olde and Newe Testament. […] (the Geneva Bible), Geneva: […] Rouland Hall, →OCLC, Ivdges II:10, folio 109, recto:

So he bleſſed them, and was gathered to his fathers.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Maccabees 2:69, column 1:

How many prayers, offered up by ſerious and regenerated believers for their ungodly children, have been anſwered years after the humble petitioners have been gathered to their fathers!

1795 January, “Repentance, Conversion, and Dying Experience of a Poor Prostitute”, in The Evangelical Magazine, London: […] T. Chapman, […], →OCLC, page 8:

Besides the probate, large fees are demanded for burying him in the chancel; his virtues are handed down to posterity on taxed marble; and he is then gathered to his fathers,—to be taxed no more.

1820 January, [Sydney Smith], “Art. III. Statistical Annals of the United States of America. By Adam Seybert. 4to. Philadelphia, 1818. [book review]”, in The Edinburgh Review, or Critical Journal, volume XXXIII, number LXV, Edinburgh: Printed by David Willison, for Archibald Constable and Company; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown, →OCLC, page 78:

We have seen how William the Conqueror has been gathered to his fathers. Usual pageantries ensued: loud praises bestowed upon the departed monarch by those who enjoyed his bounty or profited by his patronage.

1864, Francis Palgrave, “The Events Consequent upon the Accession of Rufus in England, and of Robert in Normandy”, in [Francis Turner Palgrave], editor, The History of Normandy and of England, volumes IV (William Rufus—Accession of Henry Beauclerc), London: Macmillan & Co., […], →OCLC, § 1, page 1:

In the course of years this worthy couple were gathered to their fathers and headlines on old tombs in the Means cemetery indicate that they found a resting place there many years ago.

1909, Edward H. Chadwick, “James Robert Means”, in Chadwick’s History of Shelby County, Indiana, Indianapolis, Ind.: B. F. Bowen & Company, →OCLC, page 915:

I am well over sixty and must expect to be gathered to my fathers sooner rather than later. Who will then be left to carry on the family traditions in a worthy manner?

2004, chapter 24, in Vladimir Kean, transl., Beyond the Golden Lotus: Chin P’ing Mei, London, New York, N.Y.: Kegan Paul, →ISBN, page 303:

[T]he offender is to be "cut off" (either the offender's line of descendants will cease, or the offender is barred from "being gathered to his fathers" in the afterlife).

2005, Victor P. Hamilton, “A Holiness Manifesto: Leviticus 17–27”, in Handbook on the Pentateuch, 2nd (ebook) edition, Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic, Baker Publishing Group, published 29 April 2015, →ISBN, part 3 (Leviticus):

(biblical and literary, dated) To be buried together with one's forebears; hence, to die.

נֶאֱסָף אֶל אֲבוֹתָיו

to be buried together with one's forebears — see also die

отпра́виться к праотца́м (otprávitʹsja k praotcám, literally “to depart to one’s forefathers”)


heave-shoulder

(religion, historical) The shoulder of an animal elevated in sacrifice.


vijnana

From Sanskrit विज्ञान (vijñāna, “consciousness”).

bor

(Buddhism, Hinduism) consciousness; life force


cage stage

But after God has initially brought believers into an understanding of the preciousness of sovereign election, they frequently enter what a friend of mine called the “cage” stage—the time when the newly-convinced “Calvinist” ought to be locked into a cage and not let out until he stabilizes, or the medication kicks in. […] But unfortunately, there are some who never grow out of the cage stage, and this type of personality often thinks he is called to the ministry.

2001, Douglas Wilson, “A Deeper Right”, in Mother Kirk: Essays on Church Life, →ISBN, page 88:

The year between college and seminary was my prime Cage Stage. Everyone would have been better off—myself included—had I been locked away for at least a few months during that time. […] During this time I was so excited about the five points of Calvinism that I actually wrote a letter to a friend containing this line: “I'm concerned about you. If you will not submit to God's clear declaration about how he saves sinners, how can you ever expect to get one other thing in your life right?”

I went through my own cage stage in my early twenties. I was introduced to the beautiful truths of God's sovereignty in my salvation, of justification by faith alone, and the priority of sanctification—of growing to be more like Christ in my words and deeds.

(Christianity, humorous) A period of religious zeal following a religious conversion, often perceived as arrogant.


Gaonic

(historical, Judaism) related to the Geonim or their era


Baul

Baul songs

One of a class of a syncretic religious sect of hardy, mystic minstrels from rural Bengal.


state church

a church established by or controlled by the government of a country.


Avalokiteshvara

From Sanskrit अवलोकितेश्वर (Avalokiteśvara, literally “Lord of Perception”).

अवलोकितेश्वर

(Buddhism) A bodhisattva who embodies compassion.


God's house

From Middle English Goddes hous, goddes hous. Compare Dutch godshuis, German Gotteshaus.


laibon

A shamanistic seer and healer among the Maasai people.


hallel

(Judaism) A hymn of praise chanted during the Passover supper, consisting of Psalms cxiii to cxviii.


rushnyk

From Belarusian рушні́к (rušník), ручні́к (ručník) or Ukrainian рушни́к (rušnýk).

A cloth/towel embroidered with symbols and cryptograms of the ancient world, used in Eastern Slavic ceremonies.


Janazah

From Arabic جَنَازَة (janāza, “funeral”).

The janazah, or funeral-prayers, are repeated by the priest, the people around saying Amin or “Amen.”

1875, Thomas D. Forsyth, Report of a Mission to Yarkund in 1873, page 93:

This prayer is called Janazah prayer, It is offered in a standing position. […] The Janazah prayer is a collective obligation (Fard-Kifayah) on all the Muslims of the locality of the dead person.

1993, A.H.M. Quasem, Essential Islamic Teachings, page 51:

A Muslim funeral prayer, part of the Islamic funeral ritual.


Gadarene swine

2000 [1908, Weiser Books], R. Campbell Thompson, Semitic Magic: Its Origins and Development, Red Wheel/Weiser, page 208,
The most remarkable parallel to this spell is contained in the New Testament story of the Gadarene swine.

In fact, Hamsun now completes his allusion to the story of the Gadarene swine alluded to by Pauline in the previous novel. That the reader is expected to recall the Biblical story is quite evident from one simple fact: the number of sheep, according to August's rough reckoning, is "over two thousand"; the herd of Gadarene swine numbered "about two thousand."

2005, Sverre Lyngstad, Knut Hamsun, Novelist: A Critical Assessment, Peter Lang, page 294:

Here Dostoevsky uses the biblical story of the Gadarene swine—a tale of unclean devils that, having been exorcised from a sick or mad man by Christ, enter a herd of swine that then rushes headlong down a steep bank into the sea (Mark 5:2-20)—to generate a series of analogies that suggest that Russia is a sick or mad man possessed by devils and that the swine that the devils enter upon being exorcised are the revolutionaries (Devils, 647–48). In The Master of Petersburg, however, Coetzee applies the story of the Gadarene swine not only to Russia and the phenomenon of revolutionary nihilism but also to the character Dostoevsky himself.

2006, Michael Marais, “4: Death and the Space of the Response to the Other in J. M. Coetzee's Master of Petersburg”, in Jane Poyner, editor, J. M. Coetzee and the Idea of the Public Intellectual, Ohio University Press, page 87:

(biblical) A herd of swine that become possessed by demons after the latter are exorcised from men, in a parable told in each of the Synoptic Gospels, although not the Gospel of John.


hamartialogy

(theology) The part of theology dealing with the nature and effects of sin.


valknut

Derived from Old Norse valr (“the slain”) and Old Norse knútr (“a knot”), meaning "knot of the slain". The term was coined in later history, as it is not known what name was used by the historical Norse for that symbol.

A symbol consisting of three interlocked triangles, used by ancient Germanic peoples, but of uncertain meaning.


jumbie

From Kongo zumbi (“fetish”). Doublet of zombie.

If one wants to see “jumbies” “duppies” ghosts, all that is necessary is to put in your eye the tears from the eyes of a pie-bald horse. It is no use explaining to a negro that what he has taken to be a “jumbie” or apparition, is a tree or rock or other natural object.

1882, G.H. Hawtayne, “Occasional notes: West Indian Folk-lore”, in Timehri: Being the Journal of the Royal Agricultural and Commercial Society of British Guiana, volume 1, page 145:

Jethro stomped away up the hill, though the trail was supposed to be haunted by spirits of the dead called jumbies. He didn't care. He didn't believe in jumbies.

1979, Susan Cooper, Jethro and the Jumbie, page 5:

(chiefly Caribbean) A ghost or evil spirit.


istikhara

اِسْتِخَارَة

Arabic اِسْتِخَارَة (istiḵāra)

(Islam) A prayer seeking guidance in making a decision.


qareen

(Islam) A jinn who acts as a person's spiritual double and may influence them to do evil.


Lychnapsia

(Christianity) A series of seven prayers in the vespers of the Greek Church.


Lingayatism

From Kannada ಲಿಂಗಾಯತ (liṅgāyata, “Lingayat”) + -ism.

(Hinduism) A sect of Shaivism whose worship is centered on Shiva's lingam.

lingayatisme

a branch of Hinduism focusing on the worship of Shiva's lingam


benitier

From French bénitier, from Latin benedictarium, benedictus.

(Christianity) The vase or vessel for holy water in Roman Catholic churches.


jivatma

From Sanskrit जीव (jīva) + Sanskrit आत्मन् (ātman).


nisab

(Islam) A minimum amount of wealth beyond which one must pay zakat (alms).


churchical

en-adj

churchical (comparative more churchical, superlative most churchical)

more churchical (comparative)
most churchical (superlative)

/ˈt͡ʃɜːt͡ʃɪk(ə)l/

/ˈt͡ʃɝt͡ʃɪk(ə)l/

When I rode through the streets of your giant-like town (applause), and when I saw the many churches which heave their towers up stairs (cheers), I thought, the English are a very churchical people (loud cheers). I therefore wonder not that you also are an educational people, for religion is the mother of education, and where there are many churches, there we may expect that there are also many schools.

[1863, “A Dutchman’s Difficulties with the English Language, as Experienced by Mynheer Steven van Brammelendam”, in Donald McLeod, editor, Good Words, volume IV, London: Alexander Strahan and Co. […], →OCLC, page 873:

First of all, very many ages long the churchical dogmas taught that experiencing lust would bs a sin and sexual intercourse was only tolerated when the aim would be propagation.

1982, Darshana International: An International Quarterly of Philosophy, Psychology, Psychical Research, Religion, Mysticism & Sociology, volume 22, Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh, India: J. P. Atreya, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 67:

Kate and Max glanced at each other and grinned before Kate answered, “Oh I'm sure Dawn might want to go. But I don't know about Christina, she has a busy social life. She may have something churchical going on." / "Churchical?" frowned Thomas. / "You know, something to do with the church. She heads the youth team and is in the choir, as well as being an altar server and she even teaches grade 2 Sunday school."

2015 February 9, B. C. Stewart, Deep Waters, Bloomington, Ind.: Balboa Press, Hay House, →ISBN:

[S]he put the bow [of the double bass] away and went back to playing pizzicato, plucking the strings with chill serenity, ritual aplomb. She stood with her back straight, addressing the strings with a churchical assurance, churchical rectitude, as patient a fingerwalk as there ever was.

2017, Nathaniel Mackey, Late Arcade, New York, N.Y.: New Directions Publishing, →ISBN:

(Christianity, informal) Pertaining to or characteristic of church; ecclesiastical.

Ethiopia, the Saviour of the world. Ethiopia as an Empire with hundreds of Ethnic groups with their religious beliefs centered around the House of David; these traditions and customs were taken to Jamaica and were kept alive by underground secret society with the churchical order dealing with divinity and person of the King of Ethiopia, as were passed down orally by the elders to each generation which maintained the faith of their fathers and did not bow to Baal and its idolatry by becoming protestantised.

1991, E[verton] S. P. McPherson, Rastafari and Politics: Sixty Years of a Developing Cultural Ideology: A Sociology of Development Perspective (H.I.M. Centenary Celebration Work; no. 1), Clarendon, Jamaica: Black International Iyahbinghi Press, →ISBN, page 22:

These more formal groups [of Rastafarians] fall into two categories: "churchical" and "statical." The churchical are so designated because of their emphasis on the development of Rastafarian religious culture and behavior and on the cultivation of African cultural consciousness and lifestyle. Prince Edward's Ethiopian National Congress, Claudius Henry's Peacemakers Association, the Twelve Tribes of Israel, The Rastafarian Theocratic Government, and the Sons of Negus are examples of churchical Rastafarian organizations. The statical groups gain this designation from their commitment to more political and social goals.

1998, Ennis B[arrington] Edmonds, “The Structure and Ethos of Rastafari”, in Nathaniel Samuel Murrell, William David Spencer, Adrian Anthony McFarlane, editors, Chanting down Babylon: The Rastafari Reader, Philadelphia, Pa.: Temple University Press, →ISBN, page 351:

In line with Rastafari conceptions of an ancient theocracy, their concept of self-determination takes the form of a churchical state.

2006, Werner Zips, editor, Rastafari: A Universal Philosophy in the Third Millennium, Kingston, Jamaica: Ian Randle Publishers, →ISBN, page 135:

With this caution in mind I suggest that the militant orientation tends to be a more masculine expression, while the churchical remains closer to traditional Afro-Christian gender roles.

2014, Jeanne Christensen, “‘From the Cross to the Throne’”, in Rastafari Reasoning and the RastaWoman: Gender Constructions in the Shaping of Rastafari Livity (Critical Africana Studies: African, African American, and Caribbean Interdisciplinary and Intersectional Studies), Lanham, Md., Plymouth, Devon: Lexington Books, Rowman & Littlefield, →ISBN, page 110:

(chiefly Jamaica, Rastafari) Pertaining to the strain of Rastafarian culture that emphasizes a traditional theocracy.


minor canon

(Christianity) A cleric in orders, attached to a cathedral and having the duty of assisting the canons in singing divine service.


dongba

By 1949 there were dongba practising only in the rural areas of Lijiang. We have no figure on the exact number, but according to interviews many Naxi villages had a dongba at that time, or would invite one from a neighbouring village. After the Communist take-over the dongba's activities were prohibited as expressions of feudal superstition (mixin), and partly for this reason there are extremely few dongba today.

1998, Kjeld Erik Brødsgaard, David Strand, Reconstructing Twentieth-century China, →ISBN:

Dongba of the Baisha schoolwere skilled and prolific in the script, and they could read and write geba script as well. In an analysis of the title pages of seven thousand dongba books in Western libraries, Pan and Jackson found 1,233 written by some forty-five authors from the Baisha school.

2011, Erik Mueggler, The Paper Road: Archive and Experience in the Botanical Exploration of West, →ISBN:

When the Buddhist monks and the dongbas went to the west to seek the sacred scriptures, the dongbas won the race and got the pants. This is why Tibetan Buddhist monks only wear robes, while we dongbas wear robes and pants.

2014, Marie-Rose Phan-Le, Talking Story: One Woman's Quest to Preserve Ancient Spiritual and Healing Traditions, →ISBN:


ritely

(religion, archaic) With the necessary rites.


Liguorian

(Christianity) A member of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer founded by Alphonsus Liguori.


inlibration

Coined by Harry A Wolfson (1887–1974) on the model of incarnation, from in- + inflected stem of Latin liber (“book”) + -ation.

Consequently, […] the question arises in our mind whether […] there was not also in Islam a controversy over the inlibration, that is, the embookment, of the pre-existing Koran in the revealed Koran and also over the problem of whether the revealed Koran had two natures, a divine and a man-made, or only one nature, a man-made nature.

1976, Harry Austryn Wolfson, The Philosophy of the Kalam, page 146:

The Prophet had to be a vessel unstained by external knowledge for the Word's inlibration, just as Mary had to be virgin in order to be a pure vessel for the Word's incarnation.

1992, Annemarie Schimmel, Islam: An Introduction, page 75:

Inlibration works in contrast—for Muslims the Qur'an is god, a fixed point as god's creation goes on around it.

2015, Steve Aylett, Heart of the Original, Unbound, page 30:

(Islam) The fact of God's being invested in a book (the Qur'an), as opposed to in flesh as held by Christianity.


khafd

female genital mutilation
female genital mutilation


Dianeticist

(Scientology) A practitioner of Dianetics.

(Scientology) Someone who supports the ideas and practices of Dianetics.


resourcement

If this strategy of resourcement is a call for the American Church to become more deeply Catholic than it has perhaps even been, it should be clear that it is a call to become a very different kind of Catholic than prevailed in the pre-Vatican II Church.

1982 -, John Aloysius Coleman, An American strategic theology, →ISBN, page 165:

Insofar as these norms require modifications of the ideals and social goals that Catholicism aspired to in the long period from Constantine to Napoleon, they can be seen as encouraging either a progressive development of doctrine in social matters or a resourcement in which the church returns to patterns of organization and social aspiration which were appropriate to its early formative experiences as a minority group more concerned to survive hostility and contempt than to mold society.

1990, R. Bruce Douglass, Gerald M. Mara, Henry S. Richardson, Liberalism and the good, page 113:

After the Second World War there was, on the one hand, the movement striving for what was called resourcement, a return to the sources. Typically, it was not the Bible but the Church Fathers that were considered to embody the true and living source of theology, and, what was more, the true way of understanding the position of the theologian.

2010, Lieven Boeve, Frederiek Depoortere, Stephan van Erp, Edward Schillebeeckx and Contemporary Theology, →ISBN, page 247:

In Roman Catholic circles, Henri de Lubac powerfully and controversially championed a resourcement of theology, looking beyond the manuals and commentaries authoritative in his day to the still living voice of the Fathers and great Scholastics.

2014, Steven D. Cone, An Ocean Vast of Blessing: A Theology of Grace, →ISBN, page x:

(Catholicism) A theological movement involving a return to the original sources of the Catholic church.


subpanation

(Christianity) The doctrine that the body and blood of Christ are locally and materially present in the Eucharist under the form of bread and wine.


Ecclesiast

(Christianity) The author of Ecclesiastes, traditionally considered to be King Solomon.


caliphette

For quotations using this term, see Citations:caliphette.

(rare) A (Muslima) woman who is a member of Daesh/ISIS.


frummer

From Yiddish פֿרומער [ייִד] (frumer [yid], “pious [Jew]”).

bor

פֿרומער 􂀿ייִד􂁀

(Judaism) A Jew who is frum (pious and observant of Jewish laws and customs).


All Holiness

Calque of Greek Παναγιότατος (Panagiótatos).

calque

Παναγιότατος

Ecumenical Patriarch
Ecumenical Patriarch

(Eastern Orthodoxy, countable) Used in connection with His or Your to address to the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople and the metropolitan bishop of Thessaloniki.

Παναγιότατος

used to address certain archbishops and bishops


Epistle of James

(biblical) The twentieth book of the New Testament.


orienate

en-verb

orienate (third-person singular simple present orienates, present participle orienating, simple past and past participle orienated)

orienates (present singular third-person)
orienating (participle present)
orienated (participle past)
orienated (past)

/ˈɔɹiɛnˌeɪt/

Probably from the incorrect derivation of Latin oriēns (“orient”, oriēnt- in compounds) + -ate (verb-forming suffix) or a misspelling of orientate (perhaps through French, see pronunciation at French orient). Compare oriency and orience.

af

We may also discern that Mary picks up something of a possible rebuke as, in her final turn, she orienate directly to this contrast between *then' and ' now' by identifying Jean and Mary as "you' - [...]

2005, David Middleton, Steve D Brown, The Social Psychology of Experience:

"...a militant party, a revolutionary party, bold enongh to lead the proletarians to the struggle for power, with sufficient experience to be able to orienate itself in the complicated problems that arise in a revolutionary situation [...]

And one must also be able to orienate himself quickly, to catch up the direction of the approaching fashions.

From March 11 to March 18 the condition grew progressively worse; the patient became restless; he developed stertorous breathing, became stuporous, and failed to recognize his wife, but on March 20 became orienated, complaining of numbness in the side of the face; [...]

1930, United States Veterans' Bureau Medical report, volume VI:

(transitive, reflexive or intransitive, social sciences, religion, dated) To change (or make something change) for or get accustomed (or make something get accustomed) to a new situation, adapt.


chotki

From Russian чётки (čótki, “prayer beads, rosary”).


trinitarian formula

(religion, Christianity) The phrase "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit", or words to that form and effect, referring to the three persons of the Christian Trinity.


white Easter

An Easter Sunday on which there is a ground covering of snow or snowfall.


talqin

(Islam) The recitation of the shahada and other creedal information or instructions to someone who is about to die, or who has recently died and been buried.


wallahi

From Arabic وَٱللّٰه (wa-llāh, literally “by God”).


scripture cake

(US, Christianity, cooking) A cake whose recipe references lines from the King James Bible as ingredients in encoded form, where the ingredient is a noun found in that verse. The recipe is used to induce biblical learning and rote memorization of this particular edition of the Bible.


Sunday obligation

(Christianity, chiefly Roman Catholicism) the obligation to attend a church service (mass) on Sundays; failing to fulfil this obligation without excuse constitutes a grave sin


komboskini

From Greek κομποσκοίνι (komposkoíni, “prayer rope”).

bor

(Christianity) A rope of usually 33, 50 or 100 knots, used in meditative prayer in the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic tradition, to count one's recitations of the Jesus Prayer.


hizb

Unadapted borrowing from Arabic حِزْب (ḥizb, “group, band, faction”)

ubor

each of the roughly equilongitudinal 60 parts in which the Quran has been traditionally divided to ease its reading and memorization


televangelize

en-verb

televangelize (third-person singular simple present televangelizes, present participle televangelizing, simple past and past participle televangelized)

televangelizes (present singular third-person)
televangelizing (participle present)
televangelized (participle past)
televangelized (past)

To spread the message about (a particular branch of) Christianity, over a television broadcast; to work as a televangelist.


Church Father

/ˈt͡ʃɜːt͡ʃ fɑːðə(ɹ)/

/ˈt͡ʃɝt͡ʃ fɑ.ðɚ/

(Christianity) One of a number of male Christian writers from Antiquity whose doctrinal work is considered authoritative by the later church.

kerkvader

authoritative ancient male Christian author


amillennial

(Christianity) Of or relating to amillennialism.


Osun

A major orisha in the Yoruba and santería religion.


sword verse

Calque of Arabic آيَات السَّيْف (ʔāyāt as-sayf, “sword verses”).

cal

آيَات السَّيْف

(Islam, chiefly in the plural) Any of a number of verses in the Qur'an that may be interpreted as promoting violence against nonbelievers.


right hand of fellowship

en-noun

right hand of fellowship (plural right hands of fellowship)

(Christianity) The right hand given by one minister or elder to another at an ordination in some churches.


integralism

integralism (countable and uncountable, plural integralisms)

A movement within Roman Catholicism, holding that political rule must not be separated from religious issues.


BJP

Bharatiya Janata Party
w:Bharatiya Janata Party

(Indian politics) Initialism of Bharatiya Janata Party, a major political party.


skufia

(religion) A soft-sided brimless cap of various shapes, worn by clergy or monastics.


Febronianism

Derived from the pseudonym Justinus Febronius adopted by Johann Nikolaus von Hontheim, coadjutor bishop of Trier, in publishing his book De statu ecclesiae et legitima potestae Romani pontificis; + -ism.

Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church

(Roman Catholicism, historical) A powerful movement within the Roman Catholic Church in Germany in the latter part of the 18th century, directed towards the nationalizing of Catholicism, the restriction of the power of the papacy in favour of that of the episcopate, and the reunion of the dissident churches with Catholic Christendom.


canonical obedience

(Christianity) The obedience, as regulated by the canons, of one ecclesiastic to another of higher rank.


wooden fish

wooden fish (plural wooden fishes or wooden fish)

wooden fishes (plural)
wooden fish (plural)

zh-l

木魚／木鱼 (mùyú)

A wooden percussion instrument played by monks and lay people in the Mahayana Buddhist tradition in China, Japan, Korea and other East Asian countries.


Greek Catholic

Of or relating to the Greek Catholic Church

græsk-katolsk

of or relating to the Greek Catholic Church


protoorthodox

before Christianity had agreed upon standards


consecrate a Buddha image

en-verb

consecrate a Buddha image (third-person singular simple present consecrates a Buddha image, present participle consecrating a Buddha image, simple past and past participle consecrated a Buddha image)

consecrates a Buddha image (present singular third-person)
consecrating a Buddha image (participle present)
consecrated a Buddha image (participle past)
consecrated a Buddha image (past)


Adithya

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


Adithya

A male given name from Sanskrit mainly used in India.


jhandi

A triangular flag used as a Hindu religious marker and symbol of identity.


terumah

en-noun

terumah (plural terumot or terumoth or terumahs)

terumot (plural)
terumoth (plural)
terumahs (plural)

bor

Hebrew תְּרוּמָה


heave offering

(Judaism) A voluntary Jewish offering lifted up before the Lord by the priest.


Ember day

From Middle English ember-dai, imber-dai, imbre-dai (“Ember day”), from Old English ymbren-dæg. Ymbren is possibly a corrupted form of Old English ymbryne (“period, revolution of time”), from ymb (“around, about”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂m̥bʰi (“around, about”)) + ryne (“path along which motion occurs; course”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(H)r ̊-nw- (“to flow, move, run”)). Alternatively, Ember could be a corruption of Latin quatuor tempora (“four periods”), from which German Quatember (“Embertide”) is derived.

der

Days of Faſting or Abſtinence. [...] The Ember-days at the four Seaſons, being the Wedneſday, Friday, and Saturday after #x5C;#x7B; the First Sunday in Lent. / The Feaſt of Pentecoſt. / September 14. / December 13.

1662, Thomas Cranmer [et al.], compilers, “Tables & Rules for the Moveable and Immoveable Feasts; together with the Days of Fasting and Abstinence, through the Whole Year”, in The Book of Common-Prayer, and Administration of the Sacraments, […], London: […] John Bill, and Christopher Barker, […], →OCLC:

Saints Days, &c. [...] 9 [...] Ember-week [...] 11 [...] Ember-day [...] 12 [...] Ember-day

1715, Job Gadbury, “MARCH hath xxxi Days”, in ΈΦΗΜΕΡΙΣ [EPHEMERIS]: Or, A Diary Astronomical, Astrological, Meteorological, for the Year of Our Lord, 1715. […], London: Printed for T. W. for the Company of Stationers, →OCLC:

St. Lambard's day (Auguſt 15) the feaſt of the dedication of Ryerſh church happening frequently in the Ember days (in diebus iiiiᵐ temporum) and alſo in harveſt, the biſhop ordered that it ſhould be kept on the tranſlation of St. Martin in the ſummer, which was July 4th.

1784 May 6, Rev. Mr. Denne, “XXIX. Memoir on Hokeday.”, in Archaeologia: Or Miscellaneous Tracts Relating to Antiquity, London: Printed by J[ohn] Nichols, printer to the Society [of Antiquaries of London]; […], published 1785, →OCLC, pages 253–254:

47. When does the third Ember day happen? On the first Wednesday after the Holy Cross. 48. When does that day happen? The Holy Cross always happens on the 14th day of September. 49. Why is that day named Holy Cross? Because that day was instituted in consequence of Queen Helena finding a piece of the Cross on Mount Calvery,^([sic – meaning Calvary]) about the year A.D. 615.

1848, Joel Spyker, “Almanack. Containing 169 Questions and Answers.”, in A Collection of Geographical, Moral, Religious, Biblical, Political and Other Chapters, in the Form of Questions and Answers, […], Brookville, Pa.: Brady & Wilson, printers, →OCLC, page 115:

The Ember-days are periodical fasts originally instituted, it is said, by Pope Calixtus, in the third century, for the purpose of imploring the blessing of Heaven on the produce of the earth; and also preparing the clergy for ordination, in imitation of the apostolic practice recorded in the 13th chapter of the Acts.

1864, “December 13”, in R[obert] Chambers, editor, The Book of Days: A Miscellany of Popular Antiquities in Connection with the Calendar: […] In Two Vols., volume II, Edinburgh: W[illiam] & R[obert] Chambers, →OCLC, page 687, column 2:

You must not butcher beef on an Ember day but you may cut it up.

1915, Edwin Miller Fogel, “Special Days and Seasons”, in Beliefs and Superstitions of the Pennsylvania Germans, Philadelphia, Pa.: American Germanica Press, →OCLC, paragraph 1305, page 252:

I then drove to the Red Lion, here I met one of the fathers the first thing he said to me was, I dispense you from eating fish today (an ember day) so I got some meat soup I found the stockport bus, and drive here.

2008, Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Schoolboy (1867–1876)”, in Jon Lellenberg, Daniel Stashower, Charles Foley, editors, Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters, London: Harper Perennial, →ISBN, page 49:

These are the Ember Days, the name derived from the German Quatember, a corruption of quattuor tempore, "the four times," four groups of three days (Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday), marking the seasons by fasting and abstinence.

2013, Philip H. Pfatteicher, “Advent”, in Journey into the Heart of God: Living the Liturgical Year, Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 67:

Western Christianity
Western Christianity

(Christianity) Any of the three days within the same week, four separate sets of which occur roughly equidistant in the circuit of the year, that are set aside for fasting and prayer. In Western Christianity they are usually the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday following the first Sunday in Lent, Whitsunday, Holy Cross Day (14 September), and Saint Lucy's Day (13 December).

Suché den

any of the three days within the same week, four separate sets of which occur roughly equidistant in the circuit of the year, set aside for fasting and prayer


swoon hypothesis

(Christianity) The hypothesis that Jesus did not die on the cross, but merely lost consciousness, and thus his resurrection in the tomb was not miraculous.


turbah

From Arabic تُرْبَة (turba). Doublet of turbeh.

(Islam) A small piece of soil or clay, often in the form of a tablet, used in Islamic prayer to symbolize earth.


paramaatma

(India, religion) The eternal divine or cosmic soul.


ruchnik

From Russian ручни́к (ručník) or Belarusian ручні́к (ručník).


unalome

Borrowed from Thai อุณาโลม (uṇālom), itself from Sanskrit ऊर्णा (ūrṇā, “wool, curl”) and लोम (loma, “hair”), referring to the urna curl between the eyebrows of the Buddha.


kernos

From Ancient Greek κέρνος (kérnos) or κέρχνος (kérkhnos).

(historical) A pottery ring or stone tray to which are attached several small vessels for holding ritual offerings in Ancient Greece.


quenchcoal

en-noun

quenchcoal (countable and uncountable, plural quenchcoals)

Zeal has in this our earthly mold little fuel and much quench-coal; it is hardly fired and soon cooled.

1615, Samuel Ward, A Coal from the Altar to Kindle the Holy Fire of Zeal:

You are quenchcoal; no sparkle of grace can kindle upon your cold hearth.

1642, Daniel Rogers, Naaman the Syrian: His Disease and Cure, page 868:

In 1636 he published two books at once, or immediately after each other. One of them was called The Quench Coal, in answer to that called A Coal from the Altar; against placing the Communion-Table Altarwise.

1817, “William Prynne”, in Athenae Oxonienses, volume 3, page 847:

(obsolete, idiomatic, Puritanism) A person or thing that undermines religious zeal; hence a heartless, uncaring person with respect to religion.


sunrise service

sunrise service (plural sunrise services)

(Christianity) A religious service on Easter practiced by some Protestant churches, usually observed in an outdoor setting.


Love Jihad

(India) An alleged campaign by which Muslim men target women of non-Muslim communities for conversion to Islam by feigning romantic love.

land jihad

alleged purchase of land owned by Hindus


omnism

omnism (countable and uncountable, plural omnisms)

(philosophy, religion) The doctrine of allness, completeness, and totality.


neo-testamentary

/ˌniːəʊˌtɛstəˈmɛntəɹi/

PIE word
 *tréyes
From neo- (prefix meaning ‘new’) + testamentary (“pertaining to a testament or will”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *tréyes (“three”) + *steh₂- (“to stand (up)”), indicating a third party standing as a witness to two parties to a contract or dispute).

prefix

One of the revisionist Protestant strategies aimed to justify repudiation of Catholicism was the gendering of religious behaviour[…]. At its simplest, yet most insidiously dangerous, it associated vetero-testamentary or pre-conversion characters with the old/Catholic religion and gendered them feminine or effeminate—unruly speech- and behaviour-wise, viz. overly emotional, even exhibitionist and ultimately anti-Christian. By contrast, positive neo-testamentary characters, Christian converts and generally reformed figures were deemed the true Christians/Protestants.

2018, Estella Ciobanu, “Commemorations of Christ’s Passion Body: Ostentatio Vulnerum, Redemptive Theology and Violence of Representation in the Post-Crucifixion Plays”, in Representations of the Body in Middle English Biblical Drama (The New Middle Ages), Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, Springer Nature, →DOI, →ISBN, footnote 31, page 229:

Of or pertaining to the New Testament of the Bible.

новазапаве́тны

of or pertaining to the New Testament of the Bible


vetero-testamentary

/ˌvɛtəɹəʊˌtɛstəˈmɛntəɹi/

/ˌvɛtɹəʊˌtɛstəˈmɛntɹi/

/ˌvɛtəɹoʊˌtɛstəˈmɛntəɹi/

[ˌvɛɾəɹoʊˌtɛstəˈmɛnɾəɹi]

PIE word
 *tréyes
From Latin vetus, veteris (“ancient, old”) + English testamentary (“pertaining to a testament or will”).

But whether the Christians knew, at the beginning, image-signs of Jewish making or only Jewish prayers with the formula: Save me as you have saved Noah, etc., the great proportion of veterotestamentary salvations in the catacombs and on the sarcophagi, but especially in the catacombs, makes it very probable that there was some initial Jewish contribution.

1961, André Grabar, “The First Steps”, in Christian Iconography: A Study of Its Origins (The A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts; Bollingen Series; XXXV.10), Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, →OCLC, page 11:

By this brief analysis of vetero-testamentary evolution of the notion of the altar we simply wish to show the solicitude for and importance of the altar for the Jews of old.

1963 August, Peter Riga, “Origins and Meaning of the Christian Altar”, in The American Ecclesiastical Review, volume CXLIX, number 2, Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 102:

Episcopal benedictions generally occur before Communion during mass (after Communion, according to Gulielmus Durandus of Mende). These are inspired by the vetero-testamentary benediction of the Book of Numbers (6:22–26) and include three invocations, often rhythmic and rich with assonance, to which the people respond with "Amen."

1983, Pierre-Marie Gy, “BENEDICTIONS”, in edited by Joseph R[eese] Strayer, Dictionary of the Middle Ages, volumes 2 (Augustinus Triumphus–Byzantine Literature), New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →ISBN, page 178, column 1:

Indeed, a determination that would limit itself to opposing the "true God" (icon) to the "false gods," in extending the polemic of the vetero-testamentary prophets, would not be suitable here.

1991, Jean-Luc Marion, “The Idol and the Icon”, in Thomas A. Carlson, transl., God without Being […] (Religion and Postmodernism), Chicago, Ill., London: University of Chicago Press, published 1995, →ISBN, pages 7–8:

One can go even further and remark that it is in the infancy stories, just where the humanity of the Messiah appears, that Luke picks up the veterotestamentary themes of the actual presence and the voice of God and applies them to Jesus.

1995, François Bovon, “The Importance of Meditations in Luke’s Theological Plan”, in Jane Haapiseva-Hunter, transl., New Testament Traditions and Apocryphal Narratives, Eugene, Or.: Pickwick Publications, Wipf and Stock, published 22 October 2008, →ISBN, page 57:

Commentators have long remarked the legendary style of the account of preparation of the festive room by two disciples who meet a man carrying an urn of water who leads them to an unknown but providential landlord (Mk 14,12–16). This account is modelled on the vetero-testamentary episode of the recovery of the asses of Saul by Samuel (I Sam 10,3–6).

1999, Jean-Marie van Cangh, “Evolution in the Tradition of the Last Supper (Mk 14,22–26 and par.)”, in Bernd Kollmann, Wolfgang Reinbold, Annette Steudel, editors, Antikes Judentium und Frühes Christentum: Festschrift für Hartmut Stegemann zum 65. Geburtstag [Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity: Festschrift for Hartmut Stegemann for His 65th Birthday] (Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft und die Kunde der älteren Kirche [Supplements to the Journal for New Testament Studies and the Ancient Church]; 97), Berlin, New York, N.Y.: Walter De Gruyter, →ISBN, →ISSN, page 376:

The veterotestamentary analogies embody a constitutional and moral value whereby the Nemanjid dynasty is granted historical and charismatic legitimacy.

2013, Alexandra F. Vukovich, “Motherhood as Authority in the Life of Queen Helen by Archbishop Daniel II”, in Sini Kangas, Mia Korpiola, Tuija Ainonen, editors, Authorities in the Middle Ages: Influence, Legitimacy, and Power in Medieval Society, Berlin, Boston, Mass.: Walter De Gruyter, →ISBN, →ISSN, page 263:

Of or pertaining to the Old Testament of the Bible.

Berlin State Library
Book of Genesis
Gutenberg Bible

старазапаве́тны

of or pertaining to the Old Testament of the Bible


G-word

[...] are not afraid to use the "G word." The divine is their "distinctive product," their "unique business proposition." Still, it is a risky business. The experience of the divine is anything but conformist, it bends to no formal business plan, and it can be ...

2007, Michael L. Klassen, Bad Religion: The Psychology of Religious Misbehavior, →ISBN, page 56:

G-word: The Constitution gives us the right to use the G-word and religious freedom. The Declaration of Independence has the G-word in it. Our Pledge of Allegiance has the G-word, and our money has the G-word.

2010, Harry Webster, Venting, Somebody Had to Say It, →ISBN, page 110:


fall asleep in the Lord

en-verb

fall asleep in the Lord (third-person singular simple present falls asleep in the Lord, present participle falling asleep in the Lord, simple past fell asleep in the Lord, past participle fallen asleep in the Lord)

falls asleep in the Lord (present singular third-person)
falling asleep in the Lord (participle present)
fell asleep in the Lord (past)
fallen asleep in the Lord (participle past)

(chiefly Eastern Orthodoxy, poetic, euphemistic) To die.


broker than the Ten Commandments

en-adj

broker than the Ten Commandments (comparative form only)

En-au-broker than the Ten Commandments.ogg

A pun on the sense of broke 'without money' and broken, with potential reference both to Moses' destruction ('breaking') of the tablets on Mount Sinai (Exodus 32:19) and sinners' violation ('breaking') of the Ten Commandments in daily life.

I needed money—Dad would have said I was broker than the Ten Commandments—so I went to get my old job back...

(simile, humorous, dated) Extremely impoverished.


bitesheep

From bite + sheep. Possibly an intentional, satirical corruption of, or pun on, bishop, to imply one who bites the flock he should be protecting (compare English sheep-biter).

Wherefore mine advice and most earnest desire is, with all other of your loving friends, that you still keep that order with those bloodthirsty bitesheeps (bishops, I should say) that you have begun. For though in conclusion they will surely have your blood, yet shall they come by it with shame enough, and to their perpetual infamy while the world doth endure.

c. 1556, John Foxe, “A Letter of John Careless, answering to the loving Epistle or Letter sent to him before by Master John Philpot”, in Rev. Stephen Reed Cattley, editor, The Acts and Monuments of John Foxe, volume 8, London: R. B. Seeley and W. Burnside, published 1839, page 172:

Wherfore the bitesheepe and the recorder beinge owtragiously moved agaynst him, contrary to all justice all Law th[e]y condemned him to bee whipped at a Carts tayle and to bee boored through the eare wᵗʰ a hot iron, wᶜʰ was executed in most dispitful and cruellest manner that might bee executed to any Rooge, […]

1578 December 15, A. Dolm, [A Letter]; republished in “Diarium Secundum”, in The First and Second Diaries of the English College, Douay, London: David Nutt, 1878, Februarius 1579, page 149:

If Thomas is rather fond of calling Geoffrey Riddell Archidiabolus instead of Archidiaconus, was it not the established joke of the Reformation to call a Bishop a Bitesheep, and to turn Cardinal Poole into Carnal Fool?

[1860 April 14, Edward Augustus Freeman, “Saint Thomas of Canterbury and His Biographers”, in The National Review; republished as Historical Essays, London: Macmillan and Co., 1875, page 95:

(obsolete, derogatory, dysphemistic, religious slur) A bishop, particularly a Catholic bishop persecuting Protestants.


musaharati

(Islam) A person who beats a drum to wake Muslims for suhur.


sleep with one's fathers

en-verb

sleep with one's fathers (third-person singular simple present sleeps with one's fathers, present participle sleeping with one's fathers, simple past and past participle slept with one's fathers)

sleeps with one's fathers (present singular third-person)
sleeping with one's fathers (participle present)
slept with one's fathers (participle past)
slept with one's fathers (past)

Calque of Biblical Hebrew וַיִּשְׁכַּב עִם־אֲבֹתָיו (wayyiškaḇ ʿim-ʾăḇōṯâw, literally “he slept with his fathers”) (found, for example, in the Bible at 1 Kings 2:10); compare be gathered to one's fathers.

calque

וַיִּשְׁכַּב עִם־אֲבֹתָיו

(biblical and literary, dated or obsolete) To be buried together with one's forebears; hence, to die; also, to be dead.


cleché

Argent, a cross clechée sable — Sir Thomas BANASTER, K.G., ob. 2° Ric. II. (as depicted upon his stall-plate at Windsor, elsewhere blazoned, Argent, a cross patty pointed sable).
Or, on a mount between two lesser ones vert a lamb sable, holding with the dexter forefoot a banner ermine charged with a cross clechée gules—GROSE, Surrey (1756).

1894, Henry Gough, James Parker, A Glossary of Terms Used in Heraldry, page 162:

[…] and of a cross cleché voided and pometté as in the arms of Cawston (Fig. 162).

1904, Arthur Charles Fox-Davies, The Art of Heraldry: An Encyclopaedia of Armory, London: T.C.; & E.C. Jack, page 86:

Cross OF TOULOUSE (cross clechy, voided and botonny)

(10) — patee : cross clechy, i.e. with the ends of the arms pointed, […]

1994, L. A. J. R. Houwen, The Deidis of Armorie: A Heraldic Treatise and Bestiary, page 213:

(heraldry) Having ends which flare out (like a cross patté) before tapering back to a point (urdé).

[…] our miniatures of c. 1375 or after, namely, the Christ Enthroned of the Fitzwarin Psalter. The background 'prints' formed in the interspaces crosses clechy (i.e. of mascles). This point is interesting if it is considered in relation to the mascles[…]

1955, Ernest William Tristram, English Wall Painting of the Fourteenth Century, page 44:

Cross cléchée (voided Greek cross formed of four sans-serif L's by closing ends. Three roundels (2 + 1) end each arm. Lys in each angle. PIECE-DE-XXX (pellet, on Lyon coins; engraver's différent, on Metz) DENIERS- Individual punches for all elements; dentilated borders.

1976, Eric P. Newman, Studies on Money in Early America, page 54:

(heraldry) Charged with another bearing of the same figure and of the colour of the field so that only a narrow border of the first bearing remains visible; voided.


Christmas light

en-noun

Christmas light (plural Christmas lights)

(chiefly in the plural) One of the electric lights used at Christmas to decorate a tree, house, etc.

luz de Natal (usually in the plural "luzes de Natal")

solas Nollaige (usually in the plural "solais Nollaige")

luz de Navidad (usually in the plural "luces de Navidad")


prorevival

en-adj

prorevival (comparative more prorevival, superlative most prorevival)

more prorevival (comparative)
most prorevival (superlative)

As a result of these irregular ordinations and licensings, a rupture occurred between prorevival ministers in southern Kentucky and more conservative members of the Synod of Kentucky.

2005, Samuel S. Hill, Charles H. Lippy, Charles Reagan Wilson, Encyclopedia of Religion in the South, page 311:

(religion) In favour of revival or revivalism.


prorevivalist

As the revivals died down in the 1740s, the revivalist camp made concessions to their opponents, admonished prorevivalists who continued with the hostilities, and generally sought to heal divisions.

2006, Michael P. Young, Bearing Witness Against Sin:

(religion) A supporter of revival or revivalism.


moontime

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

From moon + time, as the lunar cycle is traditionally linked to menstruation.

(feminist paganism) The time of menstruation.


Rogation Sunday

(Christianity) The fifth Sunday after Easter, preceding Ascension Day.


imambara

From Urdu اِمام باڑا (imām bāṛā) or اِمام باڑَہ (imām bāṛa).

bor

Urdu اِمام باڑا (imām bāṛā)

In South Asia, a congregation hall for Shiites to mourn the death of Husayn ibn Ali in the month of Muharram; a husayniyya.


trinitize

en-verb

trinitize (third-person singular simple present trinitizes, present participle trinitizing, simple past and past participle trinitized)

trinitizes (present singular third-person)
trinitizing (participle present)
trinitized (participle past)
trinitized (past)

Specifically, Theiler argued that, in their quest to trinitize everything, Neoplatonists forced third components into what were originally dyads, or broke single deities into three separate deities or entities.

1990, Sarah Iles Johnston, Hekate soteira:


swayamsevak

From Hindi स्वयंसेवक (svayansevak), from Sanskrit स्वयम् (svayam, “self”) and सेवक (sevaka, “servant”).

(India, politics) A member of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, an Indian nationalist paramilitary volunteer organization.


mumble-matins

From mumble + matins (“morning prayers”).

The reason, why so great a stress was laid on the distinct reading of the Church Service, independently of its obvious necessity, was the general prevalence of an opposite practice amongst the Popish Clergy, many of whom, after they had conformed to the Liturgy, read it as they had been accustomed to read the prayers in their Breviary.*
* The Clergy who read in this hurried and indistinct manner were called, in derision, "Mumble-Matins."

[1845, Rev. William Simcox Bricknell, The Judgment of the Bishops Upon Tractarian Theology, page 604:

By our Lady! if thou hadst seen death in as many shapes as I have, the fearful change, as the mumble matins call it, coming over white and dusky faces alike, thou would not fear it, but prepare to meet it gaily, flask in hand, like a welcome guest or an expected bride[…]

1852, George Walter Thornbury, “The Monastery of the Flowery Plain”, in Ainsworth's Magazine, volume 21, page 222:

(obsolete, religious slur) A Roman Catholic priest.


Avestaic

(religion) Of, or pertaining to, the Avesta, the Zoroastrian religious texts.


monkette

One summer resident's friends had thrown her a “monkette” party when she left behind a lucrative career in video production

2011, Fire Monks: Zen Mind Meets Wildfire - Page 21:

He patted the couch beside him. “Sit. Unless you want to go lie down again? The monkette and I will be fine in here.” “The monkette?” He chuckled.

2012, Husband for a Weekend - Part 5 - Page 215:

She was trembling a little. Upset? Turned on? Couldn't be sure. “There's more to life than sex, obviously, but I'm not a monk, and I'm not looking to marry a ... a what? A monkette?” Sarah burst out laughing.


recreationism

Apparently the advocates of recreationism accept this; at least, I know of none who clearly stipulates that the identity-of-matter condition must be met.

2015, William Hasker, The Emergent Self:

(theology) The concept that the world may be conceived as being created anew at every instant in time.


Good Shepherd

Referring to the Bible verse John 10:11.


Bethsaida

From Hebrew/Aramaic בית צידה (bet tsaida, “house of hunting”).

der

/ˌbɛθˈseɪ.ɪ.ɾə/

/bɛθˈseɪ.ɪ.ɾə/

(biblical) Either of the two villages, Bethesda Julias and Bethesda of Galilee, mentioned in the New Testament.


Bethsaida

Alternate reading of Bethesda, from Aramaic חַסְדָּא (bēṯ ḥasdā, “House of Grace”).

/ˌbɛθˈseɪ.ɪ.ɾə/

/bɛθˈseɪ.ɪ.ɾə/


unfellowship

en-verb

unfellowship (third-person singular simple present unfellowships, present participle unfellowshipping or unfellowshiping, simple past and past participle unfellowshipped or unfellowshiped)

unfellowships (present singular third-person)
unfellowshipping (participle present)
unfellowshiping (participle present)
unfellowshipped (participle past)
unfellowshipped (past)
unfellowshiped (participle past)
unfellowshiped (past)

(transitive) To remove from fellowship; excommunicate.


Olivetan

One of an order of Benedictine monks founded in 1313, the original house at Monte Oliveto, near Siena.


stato-

From Ancient Greek στατός (statós, “standing”).

uder

(politics, religion) State or government.


Judeo-Christo-Islamic

en-adj

Judeo-Christo-Islamic (comparative more Judeo-Christo-Islamic, superlative most Judeo-Christo-Islamic)

more Judeo-Christo-Islamic (comparative)
most Judeo-Christo-Islamic (superlative)

(religion) Encompassing Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.


chazeret

The chazeret and maror are bitter herbs that bring tears to the eyes to reflect the slavery in Egypt. The maror is often horseradish, while the chazeret is normally romaine lettuce.

2021, Yvonne Riddick, Courage for My Journey from Eternity to Eternity:

(Judaism) A symbolic bitter herb eaten at Passover, typically Romaine lettuce, used in the korech sandwich.


cow belt

From the widespread practices venerating cattle in that region in northern India. Influenced by the English term Bible Belt.

(India) A rural region of Northern India, extending over the BIMARU states.


hounsi

At the entrance to the tent, the hounsis stretch out upon the mats.

1953, Maya Deren, Divine Horsemen, McPherson & Company, published 2004, page 48:

Each hounsis remained anonymous, focused inward and turned away from the audience toward the poteau mitan and the drums.

1985, Wade Davis, The Serpent and the Rainbow, Simon & Schuster, page 48:

In both Rada and Petwo modes of ritualizing, it is customary for ounsis to show respect to priests and priestesses through such ritual salutations.

1995, Karen McCarthy Brown, in Cosentino (ed.), Sacred Arts of Haitian Vodou, South Sea International Press 1998, p. 214

A voodoo initiate; a helper for a houngan or mambo.


Septuagintal

/ˌsɛpʃəwəˈd͡ʒɪnl/

/ˌsɛpt͡ʃəwəˈd͡ʒɪnl/

/ˌsɛpʃəwəˈd͡ʒɪntl/

/ˌsɛpt͡ʃəwəˈd͡ʒɪntl/

/ˌsɛptʃʊəˈd͡ʒɪntl/


unatheist

unatheist (comparative more unatheist, superlative most unatheist)

more unatheist (comparative)
most unatheist (superlative)

Tom Paine believed in God, specifically the Judeo-Christian God who created all and intervenes in his creation, life after death, direct revelation from God to men, and a whole bunch of other most unatheist beliefs.

2006 November 12, Tom P, “Thomas Jefferson on his own Christianity”, in alt.bible (Usenet):

That is very unatheist. We always question how we came about and have a arrived at some very good answers based on science and fact.

2010 April 12, bvallely, “I paint a picture”, in alt.atheism (Usenet):

Just then, the words of one Ehsān Narāghi, a man whose work I had once encountered in my father's library of unatheist books, cascaded down the walls of my void: What should be done to allow the Oriental countries, and Iran especially, ...

2018, Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi, Call Me Zebra, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, →ISBN, page 223:


Sennacherib

From Latin Sennacherib, ultimately from Akkadian 𒁹𒌍𒉽𒈨𒌍𒋢 (/Sîn-ahhī-erība/, “Sîn has replaced the brothers”).

der

The king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 705 BCE to 681 BCE, famous for the role he plays in the Bible which describes his campaign in the Levant.


shuckle

en-verb

shuckle (third-person singular simple present shuckles, present participle shuckling, simple past and past participle shuckled)

shuckles (present singular third-person)
shuckling (participle present)
shuckled (participle past)
shuckled (past)

From Yiddish שאָקלען (shoklen). Ultimately from Proto-Germanic *skukkijaną.

(Judaism) To sway back and forth during Jewish prayer.


theanthropos

From Ancient Greek θεάνθρωπος (theánthrōpos) Equivalent to the- + -anthrope.

(Christianity) Christ regarded as having both a divine and human nature.


Até

(Greek mythology) A goddess of mischief, delusion, ruin, and folly, the daughter either of Zeus or of Eris.


agyatwas

Borrowed from Hindi अज्ञातवास (ajñātvās), from Sanskrit अज्ञातवास (ajñātavāsa), from अज्ञात (ajñāta, “unknown”) and वास (vāsa, “staying”).

bor+

(Hinduism) A period of concealment or exile of the Pandavas.


taalim

From Arabic تَعْلِيم (taʕlīm, “education”).

Ahmadu Bamba developed a system of education for realizing his philosophy of religion and life which Babou spelt out as comprising three steps: there is taalim, the study of the Qur'an and Islamic science for feeding the brain, then there is tarbiyya, for educating the soul, and finally tarqiyya, only reachable by a small number of people and "gifted disciples" which puts them in a position of leadership.

2013, Sakah Saidu Mahmud, Sharia or Shura: Contending Approaches to Muslim Politics in Nigeria and Senegal:

There are some requirements for hosting the taalim, which moves from one house to another every month by decision of the mosques of the town, village, or neighborhood.

2017, Pauline Jones, Islam, Society, and Politics in Central Asia:


party opponent

en-noun

party opponent (plural parties opponent)

(Church of England) A party who opposes the grant of a faculty for the alteration of a church.


tefach

(Judaism) A biblical unit of measure, the palm or handbreadth.


muktzeh

Taking the Four Species in hand on Shabbat is considered muktza

1996, Macy Nulman, The Encyclopedia of Jewish Prayer, page 259:

(Judaism) Of objects: restricted from being moved (and sometimes touched) during Shabbat and holidays.


communionist

(Christianity) One who takes part in Holy Communion; a communicant.


pastorela

Borrowed from Spanish pastorela, from French pastourelle.

A traditional Mexican theater performance that chronicles the journeys of shepherds and shepherdesses on the way to visit the newborn Jesus, typically performed during Advent.