Carmelite, n. and a.
(ˈkɑːməlaɪt)
[a. F. carmélite:—L. Carmēlītēs, -a inhabitant of Carmel.]
1. a. A member of an order of mendicant friars (called also, from the white cloak which forms part of their dress, White Friars), who derive their origin from a colony founded on Mount Carmel by Berthold, a Calabrian, in the 12th century. Also attrib., or as adj.
The order was introduced into Europe in the 13th c., and in the 16th divided into several branches, one of which, the bare-footed Carmelites, were distinguished by the severity of their rule.
| c 1500 Dunbar Freiris of Berwik 25 The Jacobene freiris of the quhyt hew, The Carmeleitis and the monkis eik. 1505 Test. Ebor. (1869) IV. 239 To the Freerres Carmelites a certayne of bookes. 1648 Milton Observ. Art. Peace (1851) 572 Most grave and reverend Carmelites. 1756–7 tr. Keysler's Trav. (1760) III. 81 The above-mentioned Carmelite church. 1766 Entick London IV. 281 The church of the White-friars, or Carmelites, stood on the south side of Fleet-street. 1823 Lingard Hist. Eng. VI. 501 Pallavicino, a carmelite friar. |
b. Belonging to, or a member of, an order of nuns organized on the model of the Carmelite or White Friars.
| 1611 T. Coryat Crudities 14, I was at the Nunnery of the Carmelite Nunnes. 1670 Crashaw Steps to Temple 61 The Admirable Sainte Teresa Foundresse of the Reformation of the Discalced Carmelites, both Men and Women. 1739 Gray Lett. 1 Apr. (1900) I. 17 We saw the chapel of Minims and the Carmelite Nuns. 1888 H. J. Coleridge St. Teresa III. 9 St. Mary Magdalene of Pazzi was a ‘Mitigated’ Carmelite. 1909 Dublin Rev. Jan. 61 We have..Carmelites at Lanherne, Darlington, and Chichester. |
† 2. A variety of pear. Obs.
| 1704 Worlidge Dict. Rust. et Urb., Carmelite, is a large flat Pear, one side gray, and on the other a little tinged with red..It is ripe in March. 1755 in Johnson. |
3. A fine woollen stuff, generally of a grey or other obscure colour: perh. = Fr. carmeline ‘wool of the vicugna’ (a species of llama), Littré.
| 1828 J. T. Smith Nollekins I. 19 Among her dresses was one of a fashionable Carmelite, a rich purple brown. 1859 Lady's Tour Monte Rosa 7 Every lady..should have a dress of some light woollen material such as carmelite or alpaca. 1873 M. E. Braddon Str. & Pilgr. i. vii. 77 [She] put on her Puritan hat, and sober gray carmelite gown. |