corposant

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“
When we got down we found all hands looking aloft, and there, directly over where we had been standing, upon the main top-gallant-mast-head, was a ball of light, which the sailors name a corposant (corpus sancti), and which the mate had called out to us to look at.

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Definitions (4)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. noun See Saint Elmo's fire.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (1)

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Examples (27)

  • When we got down we found all hands looking aloft, and there, directly over where we had been standing, upon the main top-gallant-mast-head, was a ball of light, which the sailors name a corposant (corpus sancti), and which the mate had called out to us to look at. —  Two Years Before the Mast
  • Everybody knows nowadays that a corposant is nothing whatever but an electrical phenomenon, and therefore merely an indication that the atmosphere is surcharged with electricity. —  The Log of a Privateersman
  • This disagreeable state of affairs continued without break of any kind until about five bells in the first watch, when a cry of astonishment and alarm broke from the watch on the forecastle-head at the sudden appearance on the bowsprit of a ball of light of a sickly greenish hue, which I immediately recognised as a corposant, although I had never seen one before, but had frequently heard them spoken of and described. —  A Middy in Command A Tale of the Slave Squadron
  • When we got down we found all hands looking aloft, and there, directly over where we had been standing, upon the main top-gallant mast-head, was a ball of light, which the sailors call a corposant (corpus sancti), and which the mate had called out to us to look at. —  Two Years Before the Mast
  • They had played around him as the corposant flickers around the mast-head of a ship .... —  The Wind Bloweth
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Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Portuguese and obsolete Spanish corpo santo, both from Latin corpus sānctum, holy body : corpus, body; see kwrep- in Indo-European roots + sānctus, holy, past participle of sancīre, to consecrate; see sak- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. Also written, corruptly, corpusance, composant, compasant; from Portuguese corpo santo = Old Spanish corpo santo, Spanish cuerpo santo = Italian corpo santo, holy body (cf. Middle English corsaint, -seint, -sant, -saunt, a saint, his body, especially as a holy relic, from Old French cors saint), from Latin corpus sanctum, holy body, or corpus sancti, body of a saint: see corpse and saint, and cf. corsaint, a doublet of corposant.
 

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/ˈkɔrpəzænt/
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