Agapemone
(ægəˈpiːməniː)
[irreg. f. Gr. ἀγάπη love + µονή dwelling, abode (µένειν to stay, remain).]
Proper name of an association of men and women established at Spaxton in Somerset by the Rev. Henry James Prince; a similar establishment conducted by his successor, the Rev. John Hugh Smyth-Pigott, at Clapton, London. Also gen., an establishment of this kind, an abode-of-love; esp. with unfavourable implication. Hence Agapemonian (-ˈməʊnɪən), Agaˈpemonite adjs. and ns.
| 1850 Daily News 22 Mar., The Agapemonites.—It is said that there is a general split amongst this deluded sect at their abode near Bridgewater. 1851 Illustr. London News 29 Mar. 253/3 The Agapemone, or the Abode of Love, is the residence of a religious body, which calls itself the Family of Love. 1854 Edin. Rev. Apr. 377 The Agapemone of Bridgwater is full of crazy fanatics. 1859 Sat. Rev. 30 Apr. 527/2 A carriage-full of Brothers and Sisters in Love singing the Agapemonite Psalter. Ibid., Any of the subsequent Agapemonian extravagances. 1860 Dickens Uncomm. Trav. in All Yr. Round 29 Sept. 590/1 The happy nature of my retirement is most sweetly expressed in its being the abode of Love. It is, as it were, an inexpensive Agapemone. 1888 J. D. Hooker Let. 22 Aug. in L. Huxley Life & Lett. J.D.H. (1918) II. 317 The moment you allow of ‘promiscuous intercourse’ it is all up and the thing degenerates into an agapemone. 1893 Funk's Stand. Dict., Agapemonian, n. 1899 Daily News 10 Jan. 3/3 About four years ago the deceased [Henry James Prince] assisted in the opening of..the first church of the Agapemonians. 1908 Daily Chron. 24 Sept. 1/1 The Agapemonites are extremely reticent about their peculiar religion. 1908 Times 10 Nov. 12/4 The date..on which a party of Cambridge undergraduates were going to raid the ‘Agapemone’ at Spaxton, and tar and feather the Rev. Smyth Pigott. 1951 M. Kennedy Lucy Carmichael ii. i. 86 The Staff, the Students, etc., all have to have an agapemone in the assembly hall, and sing carols. |