Essene
(ɛˈsiːn)
Also 6 essen.
[ad. L. Essēn-i pl., a. Gr. Ἐσσηνοί; presumably of Heb. or Aramaic origin, but the etymology is disputed. See the 19 different suggestions in Ginsburg The Essenes (1864) 27–30.]
One of an ancient Jewish sect, characterized by certain mystical tenets and ascetic practices, and by a cenobitical life.
| 1553 T. Wilson Rhet. 33 The Essens, of whom Josephus speaketh that thei wil neither haue wyfe nor servauntes. 1587 Golding De Mornay xxv. 392 It wil not be amiss to rehearse this record of Porphyrius, y{supt} the Religious sect of the Essens among y⊇ Iewes..made a profession of Prophesying. 1748 Hartley Observ. Man ii. iv. 390 Many, as the Pharisees and Essenes, had recourse to this great Source of Comfort. 1841–4 Emerson Ess. Ser. ii. viii. 197 Why so impatient to baptize them Essenes, or Port-Royalists, or Shakers. |
Hence Eˈssenian a., also 8 -ien, pertaining to, or resembling, the Essenes. Eˈssenic, Eˈssenical adjs., of the nature of Essenism. ˈEssenism, (a) the doctrine and practice of the Essenes; (b) a leaning to the doctrine of the Essenes. ˈEssenize v., to assert or favour the tenets of the Essenes; also ˈEssenizing ppl. a.
| 1878 N. Amer. Rev. CXXVII. 496 The survivors..were half Christian and Essenian. 1832–4 De Quincey Caesars (1862) IX. p. ix, The two codes of practical doctrine—Christian and Essenic. 1879 Farrar St. Paul II. 542 The Essenic elements which were destined to ripen into Gnosticism. a 1641 Bp. R. Montagu Acts & Mon. (1642), This Essenicall piety in observing the Sabbath. 1852 Geo. Eliot Let. 21 Jan. in J. W. Cross Life (1884) I. v. 218 He..traces Essenism back to Egypt, and thence to India. 1875 Lightfoot Comm. Col. (ed. 2) 419 The deliverance of the individual in the shipwreck of the whole..was the plain watchword of Essenism. 1882 Farrar Early Chr. II. 18 Critics have spoken of the Essenism and the Ebionism of the Epistle [of St. James]. 1875 Lightfoot Comm. Col. (1886) 352 Ewald..points out..an Essenizing Sibylline poem. |