baptism
(ˈbæptɪz(ə)m)
Forms: α. 3–5 bapteme, 3–6 baptem, -im, 3–7 -ime, 4–6 baptym(e, (6 babtym); β. 4–7 baptisme, (5 baptesme, batesme), 6–7 baptysme, 7– baptism.
[ME. bapteme, a. OF. baptesme, baptême (also batesme, batême), semi-popular adaptations of L. baptismus, a. Gr. βαπτισµός, n. of action f. βαπτίζ-ειν to baptize. In 16th c. assimilated to the L. and Gr.]
1. The action or ceremony of baptizing; immersion of a person in water, or application of water by pouring or sprinkling, as a religious rite, symbolical of moral or spiritual purification or regeneration, and, as a Christian ordinance, betokening initiation into the Church. name of baptism: see baptismal name.
(With possessive and objective genitive; e.g. ‘John's baptism,’ that administered by John, ‘the jailer's baptism,’ that received by the jailer.)
| α a 1300 Cursor M. 12726 In þis hali Ion time Was lagh bigun neu of baptim. c 1325 E.E. Allit. P. A. 626 In þe water of baptem þay dyssente. 1382 Wyclif Matt. iii. 7 Seeynge many of Pharisees..commynge to his bapteme. 1494 Fabyan vi. clv. 143 After he had clothyd them with the mantell of baptym. 1521 Fisher Wks. i. 334 The sacramente of baptyme. 1589 Marprel. Epit. (1843) 28 For baptim doth not contain the perfection of religion. |
| β 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xviii. 375 Bretheren in blode & in baptesme. 1489 Caxton Faytes of A. iii. xxi. 219 A madde man..may not receyue batesme. 1528 More Heresyes i. Wks. 167/1 Ipsum audite saide the father at the tyme of his baptisme. 1628 Coke On Litt. 3 a, The purchaser be named by the name of baptism and his surname. 1651 Hobbes Leviath. (1839) 499 Baptism is the sacrament of allegiance of them that are to be received into the kingdom of God. 1851 Robertson Serm. Ser. iv. (1863) I. 25 Christian Baptism..on God's part is an authoritative revelation of his Paternity; on man's part it is an acceptance of God's covenant. |
2. fig. a. (in various senses;
cf. baptize v. 2.) Also applied to the death by violence, or ‘baptism of blood,’ of unbaptized martyrs, and to the ceremony of blessing and naming church bells and ships. (
Cf. Du Cange
Campanas Baptizari.)
| 1382 Wyclif Luke xii. 50 Sothli I haue to be baptisid with baptym. 1585 Abp. Sandys Serm. (1841) 19 They upon their foundation have builded the baptism of bells and ships. 1648 Herrick Hesper. (1869) 100 Those maiden showers Which by the peepe of day do strew A baptime o'er the flowers. 1860 A. Edersheim Kurtz' Ch. Hist. I. §54 The baptism of blood in martyrdom. Mod. A severe baptism of suffering. |
b. baptism of fire: after eccl.
Gr. βάπτισµα πυρός (
e.g. Macarius ægyptius
Hom. xxvii. 17;
cf. Matt. iii. 11), (
a) the grace of the Holy Spirit imparted through baptism, as distinguished from the sacrament or rite; (
b) martyrdom,
esp. by fire; (
c) the undergoing of any severe ordeal or painful experience; (
d) a soldier's first experience ‘under fire’ in battle (so F.
baptême de feu).
Cf. fire-baptism s.v. fire n. B. 3 a.
| [1822 B. E. O'Meara Napoleon in Exile I. 107, I love a brave soldier who has undergone, le baptéme du fer, whatever nation he may belong to.] 1857 G. Lawrence Guy Liv. xiii, It's only in their baptism of fire that the young ones shrink and start. 1881 R. Hunter et al. Encycl. Dict. s.v., When during the Franco-German war of 1870, Prince Louis Napoleon..was first exposed, by direction of his father, Napoleon III, and with his own consent, to the fire of the enemy at Saarbrück, the event was called a ‘baptism of fire’. |