Holy Land
[transl. med.L. (11th c.) terra sancta, F. terre sainte.]
1. Western Palestine, or, more particularly, Judæa: so called as being the scene of the life and death of Jesus Christ, and (with reference to the Crusades) as containing the Holy Sepulchre; sometimes, in later use, as being the scene of the development of the Jewish and Christian religions.
| 1297 R. Glouc. (1724) 392 Of so muche folc nyme þe croys, ne to þe holy londe go, Me ne sey no tyme byuore, ne suþþe naþemo. 1389 in Eng. Gilds (1870) 22 We shul preyen..for ye holy londe and ye holy crosse, yat godd..bryng it oute of hethen power. c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) Pref. 1 Þe land of repromission, þat men calles þe Haly Land. 1593 Shakes. Rich. II, v. vi. 49 Ile make a voyage to the Holy-land. 1686 J. Sergeant Hist. Monast. Convent. 98 To restore the Possessions of the Christians in the Holy Land. 1758 [see holy place]. 1803 K. White Gondoline v, And he was gone to the Holy Land To fight the Saracen. |
2. slang. The parish of St. Giles's, London.
| 1821 The Fancy I. 250 (Farmer) The Holy-land, as St. Giles's has been termed, in compliment to the superior purity of its Irish population. 1891 Licensed Vict. Gaz. 3 Apr. 215/1 (ibid.) Whether the Irishmen of the Holy Land or the Hebrew scum of Petticoat Lane. |