legion
(ˈliːdʒən)
Also 3–5 legiun, 4 legioun, lygioun, 4–5 legyoun, 5–6 legyon.
[a. OF. legiun, legion (mod.F. légion), a. L. legiōn-em, legio, f. legĕre to choose, levy (an army): cf. -ion1.]
1. a. Rom. Antiq. A body of infantry in the Roman army, composed of different numbers at different periods, ranging from 3,000 in early times to 6,000 under Marius, and combined usually with a considerable complement of cavalry.
| c 1205 Lay. 6024 Werren on alche legiun Þus feole leodkempen, six þusend & six hundred & sixti iferen. c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 30 Fro Charles kyng sanz faile thei brought a gonfaynoun Þat Saynt Morice in bataile [bare] befor þe legioun. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) II. 75 When at the prayer of Genuis þe queene..legiouns of Rome were i-sende in to Irlond, þo was Caerleon a noble citee. 1494 Fabyan Chron. iii. lv. 36 Claudius sent certayne Legions of his Knyghtes into Irlande to rule that Countre, and retourned hym selfe to Rome. 1598 Barret Theor. Warres Gloss. 251 Legion, amongst the auncient Romaines, was certaine companies of their people of warre: consisting of 5 or 6000 footemen, and 300 horsemen. 1606 Shakes. Ant. & Cl. iii. vii. 72 You keepe by Land the Legions and the Horse whole, do you not? 1611 ― Cymb. iv. iii. 24 The Romaine Legions, all from Gallia drawne, Are landed on your Coast. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. ii. 378 As Legions in the Field their Front display, To try the Fortune of some doubtful Day. 1838 Arnold Hist. Rome I. i. 25 The thirty centuries which made up the legion. 1856 Emerson Eng. Traits, Ability Wks. (Bohn) II. 33 [The Roman] disembarked his legions, erected his camps and towers. 1869 Rawlinson Anc. Hist. 398 The legion was light, elastic, adapted to every variety of circumstance. |
b. Applied to certain military bodies of modern times. foreign legion [= F. légion étrangère]: a body of foreign volunteers in a modern army, esp. that formed in the French army during the 19th c., and employed in colonial territories or on distant expeditions; also transf.
| 1598 [see legionary B.] 1802 James Milit. Dict. s.v., The British legion which served in America. Ibid., The Polish and Belgic legions, that form part of the French army. 1809 Wellington in Gurw. Desp. V. 219 A legion is I understand a corps consisting of one, two or more battalions of infantry and a proportion of cavalry and artillery. 1815 Ibid. XII. 313 It appears impossible for the Hanoverian Government to bear the expence of the Legion as now constituted. 1838 Murray's Hand-bk. N. Germ. 154 The Farm of La Haye Sainte..was at first occupied by the soldiers of the German Legion. a 1877 Mrs. Norton Bingen on the Rhine, A soldier of the legion lay dying in Algiers. 1897 E. A. Bartlett Battlefields Thessaly vii. 144 There was a small foreign legion of about five hundred men, made up chiefly of Italians and English. 1924 M. Magnus (title) Memoirs of the foreign legion. 1957 P. Kemp Mine were of Trouble ii. 19 The Foreign Legion, or Tercio, was founded in the early 1920s by General Millán Astray. 1968 Encycl. Brit. XIII. 905/2 The term ‘foreign legion’ is often used for irregular volunteer corps of foreign sympathizers raised by states at war. |
2. Vaguely used for: A host of armed men.
| c 1325 Chron. Eng. 633 (Ritson) The spere That Charlemayne wes wonet to bere Tofore the holy legioun. ? a 1400 Morte Arth. 605 The lege-mene of Lettow with legyons ynewe. c 1440 Partonope 2691 Wyth hym a legyoun Of his knyghtis. 1595 Shakes. John ii. i. 59 The aduerse windes..haue giuen him time To land his Legions all as soone as I. 1715–20 Pope Iliad xiii. 845 Nor knew great Hector how his legions yield. 1738 Glover Leonidas ii. 318 With lightening blast their legions. |
3. a. A vast host or multitude (of persons or things): freq. of angels or spirits, with reminiscence of Matt. xxvi. 53.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 15809 If i mi fader wald be-seke, I moght wit-vten lett Haf tuelue thusand legions. 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. i. 109 Lucifer with legiouns lered it in heuene. c 1380 Wyclif Sel. Wks. III. 264 Many lygiouns of aungels. 1413 Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton) v. xiv. (1859) 79 No doute but many a legyon wenten to the foote of Olyuet, ordeynyng theyr procession to brynge hym therupon. 1500–20 Dunbar Poems viii. 9 With angellis licht, in legionis, Thow art illumynit all about. 1605 Shakes. Macb. iv. iii. 55 Not in the Legions Of horrid Hell, can come a Diuell more damn'd In euils, to top Macbeth. 1634 Canne Necess. Separ. (1849) 234 To sustain even a legion of reproaches. 1667 Milton P.L. i. 301 He..called His Legions, Angel Forms, who lay intrans'd. 1751 Johnson Rambler No. 96 ¶10 Innumerable legions of appetites and passions. 1824 W. Irving T. Trav. II. 19 As I approached the house, a legion of whelps sallied out. 1865 J. H. Newman Gerontius §4 So now his [Satan's] legions throng the vestibule. 1865 Lecky Ration. I. i. 25 The air was filled with unholy legions. |
b. In Mark v. 9 and echoes of this passage; esp. in the (somewhat inaccurate) allusive phrase their name is Legion = ‘they are innumerable’.
| 1382 Wyclif Mark v. 9 A legioun is name to me; for we ben manye. 1526 Tindale ibid., My name is Legion, for we are many. 1601 Shakes. Twel. N. iii. iv. 95 If all the diuels of hell be drawne in little, and Legion himselfe possest him. 1665 Glanvill Scepsis Sci. xviii. 116 The same undivided essence..is here multiplyed into Legion. 1848 Dickens Dombey xlv, ‘Their name is Legion’, she replied. 1873 Helps Anim. & Mast. vi. (1875) 143 The number of such sayings anticipated by this original maxim is legion. |
4. a. Legion of Honour [= F. légion d'honneur]: an order of distinction, founded by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802, conferred as a reward for civil or military services, etc.
| 1827 Scott Napoleon V. 63. 1837 Marryat Olla Podr. xxix, The innkeeper was a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. 1841–4 Emerson Ess., Nom. & Real Wks. (Bohn) I. 250 The world is full of masonic ties, of guilds, of secret and public legions of honour. |
b. Legion of the lost (ones): people who are destitute or abandoned; spec. (see quot. 1961).
| 1870 D. J. Kirwan Palace & Hovel xlii. 587 Those fair and frail members of the Legion of the Lost. 1892 Kipling Barrack-Room Ballads 63 To the legion of the lost ones, to the cohort of the damned. 1899 ― From Sea to Sea I. ix. 299 Raising a Legion of the Lost for colonial service—of men who would do their work in one place for ever and look for nothing beyond it. 1961 Partridge Dict. Slang Suppl. 1167/1 Legion of the lost, the, those elderly or mentally infirm persons in homes or institutions who have been abandoned by relations and friends and who receive neither visits nor letters. |
c. American Legion, a national association of ex-servicemen instituted in 1919 in the U.S.A.; British Legion, a similar association founded in 1921 and incorporated by Royal Charter in 1925 (since 1971 called the Royal British Legion); also ellipt., as Legion.
| 1919 G. S. Wheat Story Amer. Legion 8 At that dinner [in Paris, 16 Feb. 1919] the American Legion was born. Ibid. 32 That was the crux of the initial success of the Legion. 1921 Times 16 May 6/4 The arrangements for uniting various ex-Service men's societies into one big organization were completed..yesterday. The new organization will be known as the British Legion. 1953 New Statesman 13 June 696/2 A thousand business dinners, Legion reunions and family gatherings. 1968 Encycl. Brit. I. 764/1 Nonpolitical and nonsectarian, the American Legion's membership requirement is honourable service and an honourable discharge. 1970 British Legion Jrnl. Jan. 11/3 ‘Don’ as he was affectionately known by all was a true member of the Legion, always to the fore in all branch and club activities. Ibid. 21 Are you going to Jersey for your holiday this year? The Appeals Department of the British Legion will send you..an interesting brochure. 1974 A. Price Other Paths to Glory vi. 72 Secretary of the Elthingham branch of the British Legion. Ibid. 73 He invariably sought information first from the local Legion secretary. 1974 T. Kenrick Two for Price of One xii. 101, I love my country... Been in the [American] Legion twenty years. |
5. Nat. Hist. (See quot.)
| 1859 Page Handbk. Geol. Terms, Legion..A term occasionally used in Natural History classification to express an assemblage of objects intermediate in extent between a class and order. A class may thus embrace several legions, and a legion contain many orders. |
6. attrib. or adj. a. = Innumerable, multitudinous.
| 1678 Norris Coll. Misc. (1699) 282 By this it [Pride] becomes a Multiplied, a Legion evil. 1795 Southey Joan of Arc x. 443 When pouring o'er his legion slaves on Greece, The eastern despot bridged the Hellespont. 1891 C. T. C. James Rom. Rigmarole 148 The poor curate's wife..with the legion family clothed from the odds and ends of her rich sister's cast-offs. |
b. Legion disease, fever, etc., slang (esp. Journalists') = legionnaires' disease s.v. legionnaire 2; also ellipt.
| 1976 Time 16 Aug. 64/2 Several Legionnaires had entered Williamsport hospital with symptoms of something that soon came to be known as ‘Legion Disease’. 1976 Birmingham (Alabama) News 13 Oct. 44/1 The mysterious ‘Legion fever’ that killed more than a score of Americans last summer. 1978 Dædalus Spring 151 Nobel laureate George Wald..likened an imaginary outbreak of recombinant DNA organisms to Legion fever. 1985 Times 16 May 2/1 (heading) New Legion disease alert. 1985 Sunday Times 19 May 2/1 (heading) Legion checked. |