persecution
(pɜːsɪˈkjuːʃən)
Also 4 par-; 5 persecussion, -sicution, 6 -sequtioun, -quution.
[ME. persecucion, etc., a. OF. persecution, persecucion, -quucion (12th c.), ad. L. persecūtiōn-em, n. of action from persequī to persecute.]
1. a. The action of persecuting or pursuing with enmity and malignity; esp. the infliction of death, torture, or penalties for adherence to a religious belief or an opinion as such, with a view to the repression or extirpation of it; the fact of being persecuted; an instance of this.
| a 1340 Hampole Psalter xxvi. 6 If persecucyon of þe world, or temptacyons wax ageynes me. 1340 ― Pr. Consc. 4451 Gret parsecucion þan sal he wyrk Agayn cristen men. 1375 Barbour Bruce iv. 5 His fayis..Maid sic A persecucioune,..On thaim that till hym luffand wer. 1382 Wyclif Matt. v. 10 Blessid be thei that suffren persecucioun for riȝtwisnesse [1388 persecusioun]. 1460 J. Capgrave Chron. (Rolls) 64 He counceled him that he schuld sese fro the persecucion of Cristen men. 1560 J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 115 b, At the same time chaunceth a persecution against the Lutherians. 1643 Sir T. Browne Relig. Med. i. §25 Persecution is a bad and indirect way to plant Religion. 1665 Boyle Occas. Reflec. v. ii. (1848) 302 To thrive by Persecution..is not the incommunicable Prerogative of Divine Truths;..even Errors do often gain by it too. 1785 Paley Mor. Philos. vi. x. 580 Persecution produces no sincere conviction, nor any real change of opinion; on the contrary, it depraves the public morals by driving men to prevarication and commonly ends in a general tho' secret infidelity. 1828 Macaulay Ess., Hallam (1887) 59 To punish a man, because we infer from the nature of some doctrine which he holds..that he will commit a crime, is persecution, and is, in every case, foolish and wicked. 1880 Liddon in Spectator 13 Nov. 1446 In the judgment of the early Christians, the proceedings of Decius and Diocletian were persecutions. To the Pagans of the day..they were simply legal prosecutions. |
b. A particular course or period of systematic infliction of punishment directed against the professors of a (religious) belief; as, the ten persecutions of the Christians under the Roman Empire, the Marian persecution, etc.
| 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) V. 111 Þis eiȝteþe ȝere of Dioclicianus was þe firste ȝere of þe grete persecucioun þat was under Dioclicianus in þe Est and Maximianus in þe West. c 1400 Three Kings Cologne xxxvi. 134 Þer began aȝene a newe persecucioun of heresye aȝens þe cristen feiþ. 1494 Fabyan Chron. iv. lxvii. 46 Seynt Alboon, at Verolamy was martyred, In the .x. persecucion of the Churche, as wytnessyth Policronicon. 1776 Gibbon Decl. & F. xvi. (1819) II. 434 The celebrated number of ten persecutions has been determined by the ecclesiastical writers of the fifth century. 1875 Scrivener Lect. Text N. Test. 8 The last and most cruel of the persecutions to which believers were subjected throughout the Roman empire, that of Diocletian. |
c. transf. Persistent or continued injury or annoyance from any source; sometimes humorously applied to the annoying importunity of advisers, beggars, suitors, etc.
| 1585 T. Washington tr. Nicholay's Voy. ii. xiii. 48 b, Not altogether exempt of diuers persecutions, as well by warres, fire, pestilence, earthquakes, as sundry other calamities. 1605 Shakes. Lear ii. iii. 12 Ile..with presented nakednesse out-face The Windes, and persecutions of the skie. 1662 J. Davies tr. Olearius' Voy. Ambass. 6 There it was we met with the first persecution of Flies, Gnats, and Wasps. 1803 J. Porter Thaddeus xi. (1831) 96 While their fears rendered him safe from their well meant persecution, he gained some respite from vexation. |
d. Psychol. The irrational sense of being victimized by malign forces which features in many forms of mental disorder and is now commonly considered paranoid.
| 1881 Jrnl. Nerv. & Mental Dis. VIII. 28 We may have delusions of persecution which are systematized and such which are unsystematized. 1883 T. S. Clouston Clin. Lect. Mental Dis. vi. 255 The third great class of delusional cases are those of suspicion and persecution. 1926 W. McDougall Outl. Abnormal Psychol. xx. 337 The two forms of delusion mentioned.., delusions of persecution and of grandeur, are the fundamental and most frequent. 1970 Hinsie & Campbell Psychiatric Dict. (ed. 4) 542/1 A form of paranoia characterized by more or less incessant quarrelsomeness due to alleged persecution. |
† 2. The action of pursuing, pursuit, chase; pursuance, prosecution (of an aim, etc.); quest.
Obs.| 1432–50 tr. Higden (Rolls) II. 331 Grete Alexander the Conqueroure,..in the persecucion of Darius [Hidgen, in persequendo Darium; Trevisa, whan he pursewed Darius]. 1647 Jer. Taylor Lib. Proph. xiii. §3 A hearty persecution of the rules of good life. |
† 3. (Legal) prosecution.
Obs. rare.
| 1535 Act 27 Hen. VIII, c. 20 §3 Their lawfull accion demaunde or persecucion, appeles prohibicions and all other their lawful defences and remedies in euery suche suite. |
4. attrib. and
Comb., as
persecution-fancier,
persecution mania (an insane delusion that one is persecuted; also
transf. and in extended uses); (
esp. in sense 1 d)
persecution complex,
persecution fantasy;
persecution maniac, a person of unbalanced mind suffering from delusions of persecution.
| 1961 J. Heller Catch-22 (1962) xxvii. 294 You've got a bad persecution complex. You think people are trying to harm you. 1966 ‘H. MacDiarmid’ Company I've Kept v. 139 The delusions of a man unbalanced by a persecution-complex. 1971 Rand Daily Mail 3 Apr. 5/8 We shall develop a persecution complex and go round moaning that we are misunderstood. |
| 1826 Syd. Smith Wks. (1859) II. 123/2 It is delicious to the persecution-fanciers to reflect that no general bill has passed in favour of the Protestant Dissenters. |
| 1950 T. Wiesengrund-Adorno et al. Authoritarian Personality iv. xvi. 615 The persecution fantasy of what the Jews might do to her, is used..as a justification of the genocide committed by the Nazis. |
| 1892 D. H. Tuke Dict. Psychol. Med. II. 934/2 From a medico-legal point of view, cases of persecution-mania afford matter for consideration of the greatest importance. 1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. VII. 698 Even ‘persecution mania’ may be an early symptom of general paralysis. 1903 R. Fry Let. 21 Jan. (1972) I. 200 Langton Douglas..has the persecution mania..and I need hardly say B.B. looms large. 1934 Punch 7 Mar. 278/1 The present [Russian] régime's..persecution-mania, misrepresentation of the outside world and progressive debasement of the arts are..set-backs to the advantage of what Miss Hamilton..calls ‘the Insect State’. 1942 E. Waugh Put out More Flags iii. 203 He had left his persecution mania downstairs with his hat and umbrella. 1968 C. Rycroft Crit. Dict. Psychoanal. 115 Persecution mania is an obsolete term for paranoia. 1978 I. Murdoch Sea 69, I have never gone in for persecution mania and do not propose to start now. |
| 1943 J. S. Huxley Evolutionary Ethics iii. 19 Unable to bear the condemnation of his super-ego, the persecution-maniac projects this into society, thus..being able to accuse the world of cruelty or oppression. 1955 Koestler Trail of Dinosaur i. 19 The persecution-maniacs in the West who still lived on the Red Scare had by that time become a dwindling, reactionary minority. |
Hence
perseˈcutional a., of or relating to persecution.
| 1887 Alien. & Neurol. VIII. 663 Dr. Robinson..finds persecutional delusions common as well as what he calls ‘homicidal mania’. 1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. VIII. 193 Various delusions, generally of the ‘persecutional’ kind. |