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litany, n.|ˈlɪtənɪ|
Forms: 3–5 letanye, 3–7 letanie, (4 letayne), 4–7 letany, (5 letony, -eny, latanie, 6 latenie, -ony, -yny, 7 latiny), 6– litany.
[ad. med.L. litanīa, letanīa (whence OF. letanie, F. litanie, Pr., Sp. letania, Pg. ladainha, It. litania, letania, letana), a. Gr. λιτανεία prayer, entreaty, f. λιτανεύειν to pray, entreat, f. λιτανός suppliant, f. λίτη supplication, related to λίτεσθαι, λίσσεσθαι to supplicate.]
1. Eccl. An appointed form of public prayer, usually of a penitential character, consisting of a series of supplications, deprecations, or intercessions in which the clergy lead and the people respond, the same formula of response being repeated for several successive clauses. A litany may be used either as part of a service or by itself, in the latter case often in procession.
Greater and Lesser Litany: see quot. 1885.
The name of ‘the Lesser Litany’ has also been given to the petitions Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison, Kyrie eleison, and ‘Lord, have mercy upon us, Christ, have mercy upon us, Lord, have mercy upon us’.
[a900O.E. Martyrol. 3 May 72 Cristes folc mærsiað letanias.] a1225Ancr. R. 22 Seoue psalmes siggeð sittinde oðer cneolinde, mit te Letanie. 1297R. Glouc. (Rolls) 8393 Clerkes..on god gonne crye Wepinde wiþ procession & songe þe letanye. 1387Trevisa Higden (Rolls) I. 375 He schal be housled and i-lad to þe dore of purgatorie wiþ processioun and letanye. Ibid. V. 299 Aboute þat tyme Seint Mammertus..ordeyned solempne letanyes þat beeþ i-cleped þe Rogaciouns,..and beeþ i-cleped þe lasse letayne for difference of þe more letayne þat Gregorye ordeynede to be seide a Seynt Markes day. 1483Caxton Gold. Leg. 21 b/2. 1525 Ld. Berners Froiss. II. 753 Whyle he was anoyntynge, the clergy sange the latyny. 1535Stewart Cron. Scot. (1858) II. 63 The sevin psalmis..to sing and reid, With latony, placebo, and the creid. 1611Speed Hist. Gt. Brit. ix. i. §4 In their publike Processions, and Letanies of the Church, this Petition was added, From the rage of the Normans, good Lord deliuer vs. 1704Nelson Fest. & Fasts vi. (1739) 514 These earnest Supplications for the Mercy of God, which were called Litanies. 1866Blunt Annot. Bk. C.P. 22 note, The lesser Litany is an ancient and Catholic prefix to the Lords Prayer. 1877C. M. Yonge Cameos III. xxxiv. 366 The University of Paris commanded that there should be public litanies. 1883R. W. Dixon Mano ii. viii. 95 Through the streets the priests and monks gan pace In their procession, chanting litanies. 1885Cath. Dict. (ed. 2) 519/2 The Litany of the Saints is chanted on the feast of St. Mark (April 25), and on the three Rogation days; on the former occasion it is called the Greater (litaniæ majores), and on the Rogation days the Lesser (litaniæ minores).
b. the Litany: that form of ‘general supplication’ appointed for use in the Book of Common Prayer, of similar form to those mentioned above, and consisting of petitions to the Trinity, deprecations, and obsecrations, with concluding suffrages and prayers.
[c1420–30Primer (1895) 47 And here bigynneþ þe letanie.] 1544Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees) 726 Paid to the chaunter of Westmynster for pryking the new Latyny..in prykeson. 1548Act 2 & 3 Edw. VI, c. 1 §6 The Mattens, Evensonge, Letanye, and all other prayers. 1548–9(Mar.) Bk. Com. Prayer, Litany (heading), The Letany and Suffrages. 1660R. Coke Power & Subj. 244 To have..the Lords Prayer, Creede and Letany in the English tongue. 1679–1714Burnet Hist. Ref. (1715) III. i. 164 In the Litany they did still [anno 1545] Invocate the Blessed Virgin..and all the Blessed Company of Heaven to pray for them. a1695A. Wood Life (1848) 117 Which being all done..the fellowes went to the letany. 1885Ruskin Pleas. Eng. 136 Our petition in the Litany, against sudden death.
2. transf. A form of supplication (e.g. in non-Christian worship) resembling a litany; also, a continuous repetition or long enumeration resembling those of litanies.
c1400Mandeville (1839) xvi. 177 Thei putten his name in hire Letanyes, as a Seynt. 1600Holland Livy vii. xxviii. 268 Not onely the Tribes should go in solemne procession with their praiers and Letanies, but also [etc.]. 1643Sir T. Browne Relig. Med. ii. §10 Lord deliver me from my self, is a part of my Letany. 1649Jer. Taylor Gt. Exemp. Ep. Ded. 10, I shall think my returne full of reward if you shall..put me into your Letanies. 1658tr. Bergerac's Satyr. Char. ix. 28 The passengers Letanies are mixt with the mariner's blasphemies. a1822Shelley Stud. for Epipsychidion 56 Hear them mumble Their litany of curses. 1834L. Ritchie Wand. by Seine 168 Beggars throng the road, chanting their ceaseless litanies. 1881Besant & Rice Chapl. of Fleet i. viii. (1883) 68 So did these reprobates maintain a perpetual litany of ribaldry.
¶ The form of a parody of the Litany has often been employed as a vehicle for scurrilous political satire.
1659(title) A Free-Parliament-Letany. 1680(title) The Loyal Subjects Litany. 1682(title) The Cavalier's Litany. 1817(title) The Political Litany diligently revised. To be said or sung, until the appointed change come, throughout the Dominion of England and Wales, and the Town of Berwick upon Tweed. 1851Mayhew Lond. Lab. I. 236 One intelligent man told me properly to work a political litany, which referred to ecclesiastical matters, he ‘made himself up’, as well as limited means would permit, as a bishop!
3. attrib. and Comb., as litany-chant, litany-book, litany-prayer; litany-desk, -stool, a low movable prayer-desk at which a minister kneels while reciting the litany; = faldstool 3; litany-wise adv., after the manner of a litany.
c1475Pict. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 755/9 A *letenyboke, Hec letenia.
1844Card. Wiseman Minor Rites Ess. I. 511 It blesses the fields with its solemn procession and *litany-chant.
1725T. Thomas in Portland Papers VI. (Hist. MSS. Comm.) 130 A large stone, at the East End of the Choir..(on part of which stands the *Litany desk). 1845Ecclesiologist IV. 162 Let them..introduce the use of a Litany-desk.
1894E. Bishop in Dublin Rev. Oct. 452 The fact that these *Litany-prayers are found in the Sundays of Lent is interesting.
1845Ecclesiologist IV. 147 The nave will contain both lettern and *litany-stool.
1659H. L'Estrange Alliance Div. Off. iv. 102 Which versicle was used *Litany⁓wise (that is, returned by the people) in the service of the Temple.
Hence ˈlitanying vbl. n. (nonce-wd.), recitation of litanies.
1843Carlyle Past & Pr. iv. vii, Pause in thy mass⁓chantings, in thy litanyings, and Calmuck prayings by machinery. 1865― Fredk. Gt. iii. v. (1872) I. 169 Popish litanyings..and idolatrous stage-performances.
Insert sense number a after transf. label. Add: [2.] b. A succesion or catalogue of phenomena, esp. unfortunate events. Cf. chapter n. 10 d.
1961M. Spark Curtain Blown by Breeze in Voices at Play 72, I lay on my bed listening to a litany of tennis noises from where my two brothers played. 1963P. Larkin Let. in A. Thwaite Sel. Lett. Philip Larkin (1992) 357, I ought to have written at once..and can only repeat the usual litany of excuses to say why I didn't. 1978J. Carroll Mortal Friends iii. ii. 269 She had taken her place by accident..among Brady's shuffling litany of ghosts. 1985Globe & Mail (Toronto) 10 Oct. b3/4 Mercantile has been..looking around for a merger partner..after a litany of troubles, including serious exposure to bad loans. 1987Times 6 Feb. 9/7 Many operations were a litany of disasters. 1990Guardian 28 May 20/7 The Bank Holiday weekend..brought the usual litany of traffic jams and queues at air and sea ports. |