tonsure Reference library
The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism
...tonsure . A somewhat antiquated term occasionally still found in discussions of East Asian and especially Japanese Buddhism, referring to the shaving of the head that occurs in conjunction with entering a monastery and taking ordination as a monk or nun. See pravrajita ; upasaṃpadā...
tonsure Reference library
The Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages
... From the Latin tondere , ‘to shear’, the shaved scalp that signified the wearer’s status as *clergy . The corona (‘crown’) tonsure , conventional in the 7th century, was a required practice by the 13th century. Kathryn R. Vulic P. Gobillot , ‘ Sur la tonsure chrétienne et ses prétendues origins païennes ’, RHE 21 (1925), 399–454. L. Trichet , La tonsure: vie et mort d’une pratique ecclésiastique ...
Tonsure Reference library
Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase & Fable (19 ed.)
... (Latin tonsura , ‘shearing’) The shaving of part of the head among Roman Catholic clergy became customary in the 6th and 7th centuries as a mark of the clerical state. It is not retained in such countries as Britain and the USA, where it is not in accordance with custom. The Western form of tonsure leaving a circle of hair around the head is said to symbolize the crown of thorns . The Celtic tonsure consisted of shaving off all the hair in front of a line extending over the head from ear to ear. In the East the whole head was shorn. The modern Roman...
tonsure Reference library
The Oxford Dictionary of Christian Art and Architecture (2 ed.)
...the extent of the tonsure varied considerably over the centuries, and provoked violent controversy during the Synod of Whitby in 663, when the so-called Celtic tonsure was questioned. This consisted of shaving all the front of the head from a line drawn from ear to ear. It was worn in Celtic monasteries both at home and abroad. In the late Middle Ages the difference between monastic and secular tonsure was usual, and at one time the size of the tonsure increased with each rise in rank within the ministry. In the Eastern Church, a monk's tonsure is a cruciform...
Tonsure Reference library
Alice-Mary Talbot and Alexander Kazhdan
The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium
...the 5th C. tonsuring regularly accompanied the taking of monastic vows, for example, in the case of the eparch Kyros in 441 . A Justinianic novel of 535 (nov.5.2.1) ordered that a layman receive “the tonsure and the habit ( stole )” after a three-year novitiate (see Novice ) . Canon 33 of the Council in Trullo forbade those who had not been tonsured to preach from the ambo. The actual procedure of tonsuring varied. Pseudo- Sophronios (PG 87:3985D) prescribes a circular shaving of the hair in imitation of Christ's crown; hair might also be cut so as to form...
Tonsure Reference library
Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages
... was the mark of clerics, the sign permitting them to escape secular justice in case of crime; to abandon it was a fault punished by privation of ecclesiastical Benefices . L. Trichet , La Tonsure , Paris, 1990. Jean-Loup...
tonsure Quick reference
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (3 ed.)
... . The shaving of all or part of the head, traditionally a distinctive feature of monks and clerics in the RC Church. It has no place in the 1972 rite of Admission to Candidacy for Ordination of Deacons and Priests; monks now follow various customs in the...
tonsure Reference library
The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (4 ed.)
... There is a useful appendix by J. Smith to his edn of Bede , HE (Cambridge, 1722), 705–15 (Appendix no. IX. b: ‘De Tonsura Clericorum’), repr. in PL 95.327–32. P. Gobillot , ‘Sur la tonsure chrétienne et ses prétendues origines païennes’, RHE 21 (1925), 399–451. E. James , ‘Bede and the Tonsure Question’, Peritia 3 (1984), 85–98. L. Trichet , La Tonsure: vie et mort d’une pratique ecclésiastique (Paris, 1990), with bibl. F. E. Warren in DCA 2 (1880), 1989f., s.v. A. Michel in DTC 14 (pt 1; 1946), cols 1228–35, s.v. H. Leclercq ,...
tonsure Quick reference
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology
... shaving of the head. XIV. — (O)F. tonsure or L. tonsūra , f. tons- , pp. stem of tondēre shear, clip; see -URE...
tonsure Quick reference
New Oxford Rhyming Dictionary (2 ed.)
... • josher , washer • moksha • tonsure • dishwasher • whitewasher • Portia • launcher • brochure , kosher, Scotia • fuchsia • pusher • penpusher • blusher , crusher, flusher, gusher, Prussia, rusher, Russia, usher • cruncher , luncher, puncher • cowpuncher • Udmurtia • inertia ,...
tonsure Quick reference
The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (2 ed.)
... a part of a monk's or priest's head left bare on top by shaving off the hair. In the Eastern church the whole head is shaven (the tonsure of St Paul ), in the Roman Catholic Church, the tonsure consists of either a circular patch on the crown, or the whole upper part of the head so as to leave only a fringe or circle of hair (the tonsure of St Peter ), and in the ancient Celtic Church, the head was shaved in the front of a line drawn from ear to ear (the tonsure of St John ). Recorded from late Middle English, the word comes from Old French or from...
tonsure
German Family Names Reference library
Edda Gentry
Dictionary of American Family Names (2 ed.)
...as hereditary family names include gross ‘big’, klein ‘small’, klug(e ) ‘smart, bright’, weiss ‘white (fair-haired)’, schwar ( t ) z ‘black (dark-haired)’, schlicht ‘smooth’, schier ‘pure’, jung ‘young’. But there are also names like Beschoren ‘shorn’ i.e. tonsured, Scheel and schiller ‘cross-eyed’, schieck ‘bent’, Armann ‘poor man’, and Frisch ‘fresh, lively’, as well as humorous nicknames like Scheuenpflug ‘avoid the plow’ for a run-away farmer’s son; Sparnranft ‘save the crust’ and schimmelpfennig ‘moldy penny’ for a...
