| 释义 |
communicant, n. and a.|kəˈmjuːnɪkənt|
[f. L. commūnicānt-em, pr. pple. of commūnicāre to communicate: so F. communiquant.]
A. n.
1. One who partakes of or receives the Holy Communion; one who communicates (see communicate v. 6).
1552Bk. Com. Prayer, Communion, The Communicantes kneelynge shoulde receyue the holye Communion. 1579Fulke Heskins' Parl. 469 What the priest shall doe when there are no communicants. 1602T. Fitzherbert Apol. 47 a, His body is offred, and ministred to the communicants. 1735Wesley Wks. I, I..administered the Lord's supper to six or seven communicants. 1884R. W. Dale Manual Cong. Princ. iii. i. 124 The sacramental act..is completed when the communicants receive both the bread and the cup.
b. One who habitually communicates.
1677Hale Prim. Orig. Man. ii. x. 236 There are little less than 1500 Communicants in that Parish. 1888Ch. Times 13 July 613 The existing state of the communicant roll in the Anglican Churches.
†2. A member of a household (? or community).
1577Harrison England ii. xiii. (1877) i. 259 In..most great market townes, there are..three hundred or foure hundred families or mansions, and two thousand communicants..[in country districts] we find not often aboue fortie or fiftie households, and two hundred communicants.
3. One who, or that which, communicates (in various senses): e.g.
a. one who imparts;
b. one who imparts information, makes a communication;
c. one who holds communion or converse.
1597Hooker Eccl. Pol. v. lxxviii. §8 Communicants of special infused grace. 1847Grote Greece ii. xxix. (1862) III. 64 The voice was the only communicant. 1881Daily Tel. 21 June 6/8 Investigations undertaken by the Russian police at the suggestion of an anonymous communicant.
B. adj. (rare.)
1. Sharing, participating; having a part in common; † numbers communicant: numbers having a common factor.
1557Recorde Whetst. L iij b, If the remainer, and the roote in the quotiente, bee nombers communicante, diuide them so. 1593Bilson Govt. Christ's Ch. 16 To be..communicant with him in his roiall dignitie. 1839–48Bailey Festus xix. 215 And nature make communicant of Heaven. 1870Bowen Logic v. 115 Two communicant or overlapping Genera.
2. Having or furnishing communication.
1703W. Cowper in Phil. Trans. XXIII. 1391 The Communicant branches of the Arteries.
3. Partaking of the Communion; being a communicant (see A. 1), in communion with the church.
1834Fonblanque Engl. under 7 Admin. (1837) III. 9 What will become of the poor who are now communicant with the Church? 1866Ch. Times 10 Feb., Forty thousand English communicant Churchmen. |