predicant, a. and n.
(ˈprɛdɪkənt)
Also 6–7 præ-.
[ad. L. prædicāns, -āntem, pres. pple. of prædicāre to cry in public, proclaim, in late and med.L. to preach, f. præ forth + dicāre to make known, proclaim; as n. (sense B. 1), a. F. prédicant (16th c. in Hatz.-Darm.) or Du. predikant a Protestant preacher.]
A. adj.
1. Given to or characterized by preaching; spec. applied to those religious orders who went about preaching, esp. the Dominicans or Black Friars.
| 1629 H. Burton Babel no Bethel 62 But may not some predicant Frier,..by preaching, bee a meanes to saue a soule? 1710 Managers' Pro & Con 76 That Ecclesiastical Incendiary, and predicant Herauld, Doctor Goddard. 1850 W. D. Cooper Hist. Winchelsea 38 There was afterwards added, in the reign of Edw. II, a house of the Dominicans, Black Friars, or Friars Predicant. 1882–3 Schaff's Encycl. Relig. Knowl. I. 657 The efficacy of a predicant order. |
2. ‘Uttering as an affirmation’ (Webster 1864).
B. n.
1. a. A preacher; spec. a member of a predicant religious order. Now Hist.
| 1590 Greenwood in L. Bacon Genesis N. Eng. Ch. (1874) 126 These stipendiary, roving predicants. 1598 Hakluyt Voy. I. 53 Ascelline being one of the order of the Prædicants. 1625 T. Godwin Moses & Aaron i. vi. 28 The difference between those three sorts of predicants mentioned by Saint Paul. 1651 J. Jane Εικων ακλαστος 240 The shopps..are turned to pulpitts, and every Cooper growne a reverend Predicant. 1749 G. Lavington Enthus. Meth. & Papists i. (1754) 14 These strolling Predicants have allured some itching Ears, and drawn them aside, by calumniating their proper Pastors. 1810 Southey in Q. Rev. IV. 503 A body of Protestant Predicants, not less intolerant in spirit, than their predecessors..in the Romish Church. 1816 T. J. Howell Stranger in Shrewsbury 130 The Dominicans, or Black Friars, were called in some places Jacobins, and in others Predicants. 1910 Encycl. Relig. & Ethics III. 176 The banishment of the pastors and the prohibition of public worship drove the people to private assemblies and the ministrations of lay preachers. Among the latter, who were known as ‘predicants’, Fran{cced}ois Vivens and Claude Brousson..were specially conspicuous. 1939 Conc. Oxf. Dict. Eng. Lit. 186/1 A monk of the order of the Predicants. |
b. = predikant, q.v.
2. ‘One that affirms any thing’ (J.).
| 1755 in Johnson. Thence in Todd, Webster, etc. |
Hence † ˈpredicancy, the action or practice of preaching; † ˈpredicanˌtess, a female predicant.
| 1627 Hakewill Apol. iii. ix. (1630) 261 That little life of it [Rhetoric] which remained being reserved only in the predicancie of Postillars. 1647 Trapp Comm. Rom. xvi. 1 A Diaconisse to minister to the sick,..not a prædicantisse, to preach or have Peters keys at her girdle. 1662 Hibbert Body Div. i. 219 They were deaconisses, to minister to the sick..not praedicantisses, to preach. |