Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The act of shaving the head or part of the head, especially as a preliminary to becoming a priest or a member of a monastic order.
- noun The part of a monk's or priest's head that has been shaved.
- transitive verb To shave the head of.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To shave or clip the hair of the head of; specifically, to give the tonsure to.
- noun The act of clipping the hair, or of shaving the head, or the state of being shorn.
- noun Specifically— In the Roman Catholic and Greek churches, the ceremony of shaving or cutting off the hair of the head, either wholly or partially, performed upon a candidate as a preparatory step to his entering the priesthood or embracing a monastic life; hence, entrance or admittance into the clerical state or a monastic order.
- noun The bare place on the head of a priest or monk, formed by shaving or cutting the hair.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The act of clipping the hair, or of shaving the crown of the head; also, the state of being shorn.
- noun The first ceremony used for devoting a person to the service of God and the church; the first degree of the clericate, given by a bishop, abbot, or cardinal priest, consisting in cutting off the hair from a circular space at the back of the head, with prayers and benedictions; hence, entrance or admission into minor orders.
- noun The shaven corona, or crown, which priests wear as a mark of their order and of their rank.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb Christianity To subject to the often
ritual shaving of thecrown of thehead as a sign of humility and one's religious vocation. Some tonsures were more dramatic than others, leaving only a fringe of hair. Abolished by Vatican II in the Roman Catholic Church. - noun The
bald patch resulting from being tonsured.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the shaved crown of a monk's or priest's head
- verb shave the head of a newly inducted monk
- noun shaving the crown of the head by priests or members of a monastic order
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The man with the tonsure is speaking of trainee monk Dumitru Ilie who is said to have got “hammered” and spent the night a woman he met at a party.
Archive 2007-11-11 Bill Crider 2007
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The man with the tonsure is speaking of trainee monk Dumitru Ilie who is said to have got “hammered” and spent the night a woman he met at a party.
News Story of the Day Bill Crider 2007
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I always thought the Christian practice of shaving a tonsure was the idea of some brownnoser trying to make his boss with male-pattern baldness look good.
"Hence we shave our beards that we may seem purified by innocence and humility..." Ann Althouse 2008
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Formerly the tonsure was another identifying feature of the cleric.
A Handbook of Symbols in Christian Art Gertrude Grace Sill 1975
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Formerly the tonsure was another identifying feature of the cleric.
A Handbook of Symbols in Christian Art Gertrude Grace Sill 1975
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The other, although in citizen's dress, he saw by the tonsure was a priest.
Flamsted quarries Mary E. Waller
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The tonsure is a mark of the clerical state, and in Catholic countries it is made manifest by keeping a small circular spot on the crown of the head shaved perfectly clean.
Baltimore Catechism No. 4 (of 4) An Explanation of the Baltimore Catechism of Christian Doctrine Thomas L. Kinkead
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After some time he receives what is called tonsure; that is, on the day of ordination the bishop cuts a little hair from five places on his head, to show that this young man is giving himself up to God.
Baltimore Catechism No. 4 (of 4) An Explanation of the Baltimore Catechism of Christian Doctrine Thomas L. Kinkead
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Those who have vowed themselves to the service of the Church walking gaily in the dress of soldiers, engaged in carnal matters, letting their hair hang down their shoulders curled and powdered, and thinking scorn of the tonsure, which is the mark of the Kingdom of Heaven.
In the Days of Chivalry Evelyn Everett-Green 1894
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It formed what is known as the tonsure, then the mark of the monastic orders.
Historical Tales - The Romance of Reality - Volume VII Charles Morris 1877
trivet commented on the word tonsure
monk hair!
May 29, 2007
uselessness commented on the word tonsure
Never knew it had a name. Well, I never really thought about it. ;-)
May 29, 2007
artoparts commented on the word tonsure
See: Eskiem, Rassophore, Stavrophore & Schema.
January 30, 2009
zentennum commented on the word tonsure
in Joyce's Ulysses at least twice
August 23, 2009
seanahan commented on the word tonsure
Looking at Project Gutenberg, I find
August 26, 2009