Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A short prayer or petition including the phrase kyrie, meaning "Lord, have mercy".
  • noun music : A setting of the traditional kyrie text to music for a Mass.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Contraction of the Ancient Greek phrase Κύριε ἐλέησον (Kyrie eleison, "Lord, have mercy")

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Examples

  • They weren't sure, but they knew it would be called "Operation Vidal-kyrie" and would involve putting his hair somewhere near an open flame.

    Chez Pazienza: Sabotage!: Inside the Plan to Stop John Edwards 2009

  • I plagiarised a kyrie from the andante of Mahler's 6th for a mass many moons ago and the people loved it - will get my old keyboard out and send you the music...really easy to learn but it sounds like a kyrie should.

    Pottering in the kitchen... Joanna Bogle 2007

  • Masses were quite a production then, clouds of incense, kyrie eleisons and mea culpas in Latin with a conglomeration of acolytes.

    Havana Salsa Viviana Carballo 2006

  • Masses were quite a production then, clouds of incense, kyrie eleisons and mea culpas in Latin with a conglomeration of acolytes.

    Havana Salsa Viviana Carballo 2006

  • Masses were quite a production then, clouds of incense, kyrie eleisons and mea culpas in Latin with a conglomeration of acolytes.

    Havana Salsa Viviana Carballo 2006

  • She said raggedly, 'I'm sure this chat-up line works with some people, but not with me, kyrie.

    The Tycoon's Mistress Craven, Sara 2000

  • 'You keep calling me that, kyrie,' Cressy said with a snap, angrily aware of an odd disappointment at his departure.

    The Tycoon's Mistress Craven, Sara 2000

  • 'I've no taste for meaningless compliments, kyrie.'

    The Tycoon's Mistress Craven, Sara 2000

  • 'If you really want to do me a favour, kyrie, you'll stop calling me matia mou.'

    The Tycoon's Mistress Craven, Sara 2000

  • 'Does it occur to you, kyrie, that I might not want to spend the afternoon with you?

    The Tycoon's Mistress Craven, Sara 2000

Comments

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  • Greek for Lord?

    August 14, 2008

  • Yes. Specifically, it is the first word – and hence the common name – of the Eastern Orthodox prayer, Kyrie, eleison, "Lord, have mercy," which in the Orthodox mystical Hesychast tradition was repeated with every breath until it became automatic. In this way, the pious sought to achieve a state of "praying without ceasing," as the Apostle Paul commanded.

    August 14, 2008

  • rolig, what a nice thought!

    August 14, 2008

  • Also the Kyrie is the only part of the Catholic Mass that's in Greek.

    August 14, 2008

  • But these days only when that part is sung (rather than spoken). At least in my area.

    August 14, 2008

  • The Russian version is Го�?поди помилуй – Góspodi pomíluy.

    August 14, 2008

  • From behind the iconostasis Father Mike entered. He was wearing a bright turquoise robe with a red heart embroidered on his back. He crossed the solea and came down among the parishioners. The smoke from his cener rose and curled, fragrant with antiquity. "Kyrie eleison," Father Mike sang. "Kyrie eleison." And though the words meant nothing to me, or almost nothing, I felt their weight, the deep groove they made in the air of time.

    —Jeffrey Eugenides, 2002, Middlesex, p. 357

    August 16, 2008