Exodus
(ˈɛksədəs)
[a. L. exodus, a. Gr. ἔξοδος going out, f. ἐξ out + ὁδός way.]
1. The title of the book of the Old Testament which relates the departure of the Israelites out of Egypt.
(In 14–16th c. sometimes ‘Book of Exodi’, retaining the Lat. genitive.)
| c 1000 ælfric On O.T. (Sweet) 63 Seo oðer boc is Exodus ᵹehaten. 1388 Wyclif Ex. Prol., This book of Exodi, that is to seie, of going out, makith mencioun, that, etc. 1549 Coverdale Erasm. Par. Rom. ix. 15 That, whiche in the boke of Exodi is by God spoken, I wyl shewe mercy, to whom soeuer I shewe mercy. 1579 Fulke Heskins' Parl. 8 In Exodus and Leuiticus..are many thinges..very easie and plaine. 1611 Bible (heading), The Second Booke of Moses, called Exodus. [So 1885 ― (Revised).] |
2. A going out or forth. a. spec. The departure of the Israelites from Egypt.
| a 1646 J. Gregory Posthuma (1649) 107 The Men of Hamel date all their publick Matters especially, from this Exodus, or going forth of the Children. 1740 Warburton Div. Legat. iv. §6 (1755) IV. 85 The two generations, between the exodus from Egypt and the entrance into Canaan. 1882 Farrar Early Chr. I. 460 note, Pharaoh consented to the Exodus, but it was only in wrath and fear. |
b. gen. (more or less consciously transf. from 2 a). lit. and fig.
| 1623–6 Cockeram, Exodus, a going out. 1721–1800 in Bailey. 1830 Galt Laurie T. iii. i. (1849) 81 Our Exodus from New York..commenced under the happiest auspices. 1847 Lytton Lucretia (1853) 228 To trace that son's exodus from the paternal mansion. 1858 Maury Phys. Geog. Sea vi. §306 The air..at its exodus, is dry. 1862 R. Vaughan Nonconformity 383 The exodus from the established church which dates from the 17th August, 1662. 1881 Mahaffy Old Grk. Educ. xi. 140 A formal exodus of philosophic students, who only returned with Theophrastus. |
c. esp. The departure or going out, usually of a body of persons from a country for the purpose of settling elsewhere. Also fig. Cf. emigration 2.
| 1831 Carlyle Sart. Res. (1858) 49 This Genesis of his can properly be nothing but an Exodus (or transit out of Invisibility into Visibility). 1856 Emerson Eng. Traits, Wealth Wks. (Bohn) II. 75 The poor-rate was..forcing an exodus of farmers and mechanics. 1862 T. C. Grattan Beaten Paths I. 132 The rushing exodus, as it was the fashion to call this continuous transatlantic movement. 1879 Froude Cæsar xiv. 202 A complete exodus of the entire tribe. |