Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A receptacle, such as a coffer or shrine, for keeping or displaying sacred relics.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A repository for relics, often, though not necessarily, small enough to be carried on the person. See shrine, and cut under phylacterium.
- n. In law, one who owes a balance; also, a person who pays only piecemeal.
- Of or pertaining to a reliquary.
- Residual.
Wiktionary
- n. A container to hold or display religious relics.
- n. figuratively An object that sustains the memory of past people or events.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A depositary, often a small box or casket, in which relics are kept.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a container where religious relics are stored or displayed (especially relics of saints)
Etymologies
- From Middle French reliquaire (modern French reliquaire), from Late Latin reliquiarium, from reliquia ("a relic") (English relic), noun use of reliquus ("abandoned, left behind, relict"), from relinquo ("I relinquish"), from re- ("again") and linquo ("I leave"), from Proto-Indo-European *leikʷ- (Wiktionary)
- French reliquaire, from Old French, from relique, relic, from Late Latin reliquiae, sacred relics; see relic. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“This reliquary is a product of the monastic workshop of St. Maurice d'Agaune.”
“There was a gold chain with a cross, and what you call a reliquary about her little neck, and a scroll written in cipher among her swaddling bands; but they are laid up at home, at Bridgefield.”
Unknown to History: a story of the captivity of Mary of Scotland
“A reliquary is a container that houses the remains or other relic of a saint and the use of the term here reminds those gathered within these walls that they are holy and precious to God.”
“Casket of Teudericus" reliquary from the second half of the 7th c.”
“Or maybe it is more rightly called the reliquary of liberty.”
Coyote Blog » Blog Archive » Notes from Touring Washington, DC
“- You can also go to eBay and type in "reliquary.”
“The expression on the count's face betrayed his eagerness, and it was evident that the reliquary was the reason he desired to depart in haste.”
“A reliquary is a small box, casket, or shrine designed to hold sacred relics.”
“Often the preserve of church or cathedral treasuries, the reliquary is an art of boxes and caskets, housing mysteries; of amulets and pendants made to hold and venerate sacred matter itself: the mortal remnants of the saints or objects once believed to have touched Christ himself.”
Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph
“So she ran to the little altar of the house and took from it a picture, and a small reliquary; the picture was of Saint Genevieve, and in the reliquary was a bit of the robe of Saint Joseph the Bridegroom, the patron of youths and maidens who are betrothed.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘reliquary’.
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Words from Blood Meridian
visage, affray, scullery, miasma, mirth, purlieu, tacit, benighted, wickiup, corral, amble, accoutre and 210 more...
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Storage Facilities
bankshall, storehouse, granary, cornhouse, garner, grange, bodega, repository, sceuophylacium, skeuophylakion, bookhouse, reliquary and 100 more...
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phrontistery-r
from phrontistery.info
raad, rabanna, rabbet, rabble, Rabelaisian, rabic, racemation, raceme, racemiferous, rach, rachidian, rachiometer and 514 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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A Garnish of Pewter
A list of pewter items and wares gleaned from the literature, or found listed for sale in antique catalogs - from spoons to stills and chamber pots to church cups. A synonym for the larger, heavier...
teapot, porringer, flagon, wine funnel, pepper shaker, broth bowl, basin, candlesticks, tankard, beaker, measure, chalice and 155 more...
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Blood Meridian
scullery, Leonid, parricide, boll, boatswain, walleyed, divest, diffident, rookery, coiffure, heady, garish and 177 more...
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Blood Meridian: The Words
Words from Cormac McCarthy's "Blood Meridian"
argosy, ossuary, thaumaturge, devonian, ristras, chartvail, catafalque, suzerain, argonauts, unrectified, surbated, pyrolatrous and 86 more...
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remnants of a catholic childhood
extreme unction, viaticum, maundy thursday, spy wednesday, good friday, papabile, monstrance, septuagesima, monsignor, thurible, chasuble, alb and 110 more...
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All The Words
I enjoy collecting words, for I have no fear of them ever running out.
anacoluthon, defenestration, hypnopomp, hypnagogue, idioglossia, panopticon, tatterdemalion, abalone, caltrop, miasma, paroxysm, smalt and 491 more...
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The Troublesome Offspring Of Cardinal...
Words and names discovered or re-discovered while reading and re-reading this awesome book.
LOUIS DE BERNIÈRES, the Navantes, the Cusicuari, the Kogi, the Acahuatecs, Mount Aconcagua, Hoy, miedo, escandalice, puede, hablar, ingenio and 328 more...
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i heart words
autarkic, cline, aver, limn, gossamer, ochre, fulminate, twee, augur, mollify, maw, ecumenical and 113 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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exlotuseater's Words
autocthonous, anacoluthon, benthic, bactrian, caryatid, chiastic, dryad, dromedary, effulgent, elixir, fricative, fungible and 145 more...
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colleen's words
yellow, green, pie, blue, fur, people, incense, book, brown, avuncular, mountain, fog and 1316 more...
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4 words at a time
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ktrey's wordlist
Words that I like.
Many may be lexicographically impotent due to a lack of citations and definition. Hopefully I'll be able to rectify this eventually.velleity, dispositive, bloviate, bibulous, fungible, concupiscence, avuncular, carnaptious, thrawn, hypocoristic, diegesis, lagniappe and 928 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for reliquary.
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