| 释义 |
Circumcellion|sɜːkəmˈsɛlɪən|
Also 7 (erron.) -ian.
[ad. L. circumcelliōn-es pl., f. circum around + cella cell: see below.]
1. pl. Eccl. Hist. ‘A name given to the Donatist fanatics in Africa during the 4th c., from their habit of roving from house to house.’ Dict. Chr. Antiq.
b. Vagabond monks who roved from place to place.
1564Brief Exam. xxxx b, You shall reade of the Donatistes..Circumcellions, and Papistes. 1621Burton Anat. Mel. iii. iv. i. iii. (1651) 673 The Circumcellions, in Africk, with a mad cruelty made away themselves..and seduced others to do the like. 1702C. Mather Magn. Chr. vii. iv. (1852) 527 There was the phrensie of the old circumcellions in those Quakers. 1872A. W. Hutton Our Positions as Cath. 31 The brutal violence of the hardly human Circumcellions.
†2. transf. A vagrant. Obs.
1623Cockeram Circumcellion, a tauerne hunter. 1631R. Brathwait Whimzies, Hospitall-Man 43 A great part of a long winter night is past over by him and the rest of his devout circumcellions, etc. |