hierarchy
(ˈhaɪərɑːkɪ)
Forms: α. 4–6 ierarchie, -y(e, gerarchie, -y(e, 5 iherarchye, 5–6 jerarchy(e, (6 Sc. cherarchy, ierarche). β. 6–7 hierarchie, 7– hierarchy.
[ME., a. OF. ier-, jerarchie (14th c. in Hatz.-Darm.), gerarchie (15th c. in Littré) = It. gerarchia, ad. late L. ierarchia for hierarchia, a. Gr. ἱεραρχία the power or rule of a ἱεράρχης (hierarch), episcopate. The initial Gr. ι-, treated consonantally in late L., gave j, g, in the Romanic langs., and so in ME. The later β forms, like mod.F. hiérarchie, are directly ad. L. hierarchia.]
1. a. Each of the three divisions of angels, every one comprising three orders, in the system of Dionysius the Areopagite: see note s.v. cherub. Also, the collective body of angels, the angelic host.
| α c 1380 Wyclif Serm. Sel. Wks. II. 338 Þer ben þree ierarchies. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. ii. vii. (1495) 33 The hyghest Ierarchye of angels conteynyth thre ordres Seraphin, Cherubyn and Trones. 1483 Caxton Gold. Leg. 24 b/1 Saint denys in the booke of gerarchye of holy angellis in the vii chapytre saith. Ibid. 253 a/1 Me semed y{supt} all the Jerarchyes lyft her up. 1500–20 Dunbar Poems xlviii. 57 The blisfull sonne of cherarchy. 1528 Lyndesay Dreme 524 Thir ordouris nyne thay ar full plesandlye Deuydit in to Ierarcheis three. |
| β 1531 Elyot Gov. i. i, Ministres, whom..he hath constituted to be in diuers degrees called hierarches. 1574 Newton Health Mag. Epist. 10 The Lord..conduct you to the ioyes of his glorious hierarchie. 1591 Greene Maiden's Dr. lii, I'll place his ghost among the hierarchies. a 1631 Donne Poems (1650) 255. 1667 Milton P.L. vii. 192 So sang the Hierarchies. a 1711 Ken Hymnarium Poet. Wks. 1721 II. 3 Thy Boundless Glories in Eternal Light, Angelick Hierarchies to Hymn excite. 1860 Pusey Min. Proph. 515 A subordinate order in the heavenly Hierarchy. |
b. transf. of other beings: see
quots.| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. ii. vii. (1495) 33 Saynt Denys spekyth of thre Iherarchyes, the fyrste is aboue heuen and stondeth in thre persones [i.e. the Trinity], the second in heuen and stondeth in holy angels. The thyrde vnder heuen and stondyth in prelates. 1450–1530 Myrr. our Ladye 274 Trina celi, the thre ierarchyes of heuen, the sonne, the starres, the mone. 1652 Bp. Hall Invis. World iii. iii, [Lucifer]..ceaseth not still to oppose his hierarchy to the celestial. 1820 Keats Ode to Psyche 25 Loveliest vision far Of all Olympus' faded hierarchy! |
2. a. Rule or dominion in holy things; priestly rule or government; a system of ecclesiastical rule.
| 1563–87 Foxe A. & M. (1684) III. 469 He speaketh of the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy or Regiment. 1581 J. Bell Haddon's Answ. Osor. 216 The principall stayes and proude pillers of this Ierarchy. 1654 Whitlock Zootomia 509 To reforme Hierarchy by Anarchy, a Remedy worse then the Disease. 1674 Hickman Quinquart. Hist. (ed. 2) 62 Vehement maintainers of Hierarchy and Ceremonies. 1841 Gallenga Italy, Past & Pr. (1848) I. 116 An unlimited centralisation of ecclesiastical hierarchy. 1851 H. Martineau Hist. Peace iv. x. (1877) III. 75 A scheme of a hierarchy which might easily become a despotism. |
† b. gen. Rule, dominion.
Obs.| 1390 Gower Conf. III. 145 All the londe aboute, Which stant under his [the king's] gerarchie. |
3. concr. The collective body of ecclesiastical rulers; an organized body of priests or clergy in successive orders or grades.
| 1619 Brent tr. Sarpi's Counc. Trent (1676) 553 Others placed this Hierarchy in Orders only, alledging Dionysius, who, in naming the Hierarchs, maketh mention of none but of Deacons, Priests, and Bishops. 1660 R. Coke Power & Subj. 148 The Pope and all the English Hierarchy conspire with Stephen against Maud. 1738 Wesley Psalms lxxx. xiii, They once rever'd the Hierarchy, And bless'd the Mitre's sacred Power. 1856 Emerson Eng. Traits, Relig. Wks. (Bohn) II. 102 When the hierarchy is afraid of science, and education..there is nothing left but to quit. |
4. A body of persons or things ranked in grades, orders, or classes, one above another;
spec. in
Natural Science and
Logic, a system or series of terms of successive rank (as
classes,
orders,
genera,
species, etc.), used in classification.
| 1643 Milton Divorce viii. (1851) 41 There is a certain scale of duties, there is a certain Hierarchy of upper and lower commands. 1781 Gibbon Decl. & F. II. 36 Those who, in the Imperial hierarchy, were distinguished by the title of Respectable, formed an intermediate class between the illustrious præfects and the honourable magistrates of the provinces. 1864 Burton Scot Abr. I. ii. 96 All the world knows how difficult it is..to transfer any person from one social hierarchy into his exact place in another. 1864 Bowen Logic iv. 69 We have in each case a hierarchy of Concepts. 1875 Manning Mission H. Ghost xiii. 375 There is a Hierarchy of Being, and God is the Lord of all; and this Hierarchy of Being is also a Hierarchy of Intelligence. 1932 Von Wiese & Becker Systematic Sociology 355 Whenever persons join or otherwise enter into a plurality pattern they almost invariably take their places in an implicit or explicit hierarchy, and consciously or unconsciously expect the fact that there are ranks above and below them. 1947 Soc. Research XIV. 165 This hierarchy, like any other, is a social order in which human relations are determined by the degree of authority exercised by one group over another. 1961 G. G. Simpson Princ. Animal Taxon. i. 13 A hierarchy is a systematic framework for zoological classification with a sequence of classes (or sets) at different levels in which each class except the lowest includes one or more subordinate classes. 1963 Davis & Heywood Princ. Angiosperm Taxon. iii. 75 Before we go on to discuss the taxonomic hierarchy, it will be as well to list the ranks..which are accepted in the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature. |