idolatry
(aɪˈdɒlətrɪ)
Forms: 3–6 ydolatrie, -y, -ee, 4–6 idolatrye, 4–7 -ie, 6 -i, 5– idolatry.
[a. OF. idol-, ydolatrie (12th c. in Littré), mod.F. idolâtrie = It., Sp. idolatria, Pr. ydolatria, repr. late L. (and Common Romanic) īdōlatrīa (Vulgate, Acts xvii. 16), shortened form of eccl. L. īdōlolatrīa (Tertullian), a. Gr. (N.T.) εἰδωλολατρεία, f. εἴδωλον idol + λατρεία service, worship, latria.]
1. The worship of idols or images ‘made with hands’; more generally, the paying or offering of divine honours to any created object.
| c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 4143 Ydolatrie, ðat was hem lef, ofte vt-wroȝte hem sorȝes dref. 1382 Wyclif Acts xvii. 16 Seynge the citee ȝouun to ydolatrie. 1494 Fabyan Chron. v. xcvii. 71 He had forsaken his Idolatry, and was becomyn Seruaunt of the oonly God. 1526 Tindale 1 Pet. iv. 3 We have spent the tyme..in eatynge, drynkynge and in abhominable ydolatrie [1611 idolatries]. 1699 Burnet 39 Art. xxviii. (1700) 340 This we believe is plain Idolatry, when an Insensible piece of Matter, such as Bread and Wine, has Divine Honors paid it. 1781 Cowper Hope 499 The gross idolatry blind heathens teach. 1833 L. Ritchie Wand. by Loire i. 9 [The cathedrals] those huge temples of Catholic idolatry. 1864 J. H. Newman Apol. 413 In the midst of the abominable idolatries and impurities of that fearful time, they could not do otherwise. |
| attrib. 1621 Bp. R. Montagu Diatribæ iii. 547 In their Idolatry seruice. |
† b. pl. Idolatrous things or objects.
Obs.| 1671 Milton P.R. iii. 418 To worship calves, the deities Of Egypt..And all the idolatries of heathen round. |
2. Immoderate attachment to or veneration for any person or thing; admiration savouring of adoration.
| c 1386 Chaucer Pars. T. ¶674 Therfore seith seint Paul ad Ephesios 5° that an Auaricious man is the thraldom of ydolatrie [v.r. is thral to ydolatrie]. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 6 They make all that loueth them inordynately to commytte ydolatry. 1557 N. T. (Genev.) Col. iii. 5 Couetousnes which is idolatrie. 1568 Grafton Chron. II. 92 [They] caused that place [where a popular man was executed] to be watched, that such Idolatrie should there no more be used. 1639 T. Brugis tr. Camus' Mor. Relat. 335 Those tearmes of Idolatrie which grow in the mouthes of lovers. 1780 Cowper Progr. Err. 461 Thou god of our idolatry, the Press. 1837 Lytton E. Maltrav. ii. i, He usually falls at last into the popular idolatry. |