Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Tonsure |
TonsureNoun1. The shaved crown of a monk's or priest's head. 2. Shaving the crown of the head by priests or members of a monastic order. Verb1. Shave the head of a newly inducted monk. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "tonsure" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1380. (references) |
Etymology: Tonsure \Ton"sure\, noun. [French expression, from the Latin expression tonsura shearing, clipping, from tondere, tonsum, to shear, shave; compare Greek for to gnaw; perhaps akin to Greek to cut, and English tome.]. (Websters 1913) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Canonicals | Noun: canonicals, vestments; robe, gown, Geneva gown frock, pallium, surplice, cassock, dalmatic, scapulary, cope, mozetta, scarf, tunicle, chasuble, alb, alba, stole; fanon, fannel; tonsure, cowl, hood; calote, calotte; bands; capouch, amice; vagas, vakas, vakass; apron, lawn sleeves, pontificals, pall; miter, tiara, triple crown; shovel hat, cardinal's hat; biretta; crosier; pastoral staff, thurifer; costume. |
Churchdom | Take orders, take the tonsure, take the veil, take vows. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
(1) The Oriental, which claimed the authority of St. Paul and consisted in shaving the whole head. This was observed by churches owing allegiance to Eastern Orthodoxy. Hence Theodore of Tarsus, who had acquired his learning in Byzantine Asia Minor and bore this tonsure, had to allow his hair grow for four months before he could be tonsured after the Roman fashion, and then ordained Archbishop of Canterbury by Pope Vitalian in 668.
(2) The Celtic, this consisted in shaving the whole front of the head from ear to ear, the hair being allowed to hang down behind. The Roman party in Britain attributed the origin of this tonsure to Simon Magnus, though some traced it back to the swineherd of Loegaire, the Irish king who opposed St. Patrick. The fact that it was common to all of the Celts, both insular and continental, is a sufficient refutation of the latter view. Some practicers of Celtic Christianity claimed for this, as for their Easter practices, the authority of St. John. It is entirely plausible that the Celts were merely observing an older practice which had become obsolete elsewhere.
(3) The Roman, this consisted in shaving only the top of the head, so as to allow the hair to grow in the form of a crown. This was the practice of the Catholic church until it was abolished in 1972. The origin of this practice is claimed to have originated with St. Peter.
It is needless to say that these claimed origins are unhistorical; the early history of the tonsure is lost in obscurity. This practice is not improbably connected with the Roman idea that long hair is the mark of a freeman, while the shaven head marks the slave.
Based on Charles Plummer's essay, "Excusrsus on the Pascal Controversy and Tonsure" (in his edition of Bede's Opera Historica, 1898).
Today in Eastern Orthodoxy, tonsure refers to the initiation rite when someone becomes a monk, nun, reader, or subdeacon; the rite is analogous to ordination, which is the initiation rite for deacons, priests and bishops. Tonsure usually includes cutting a small token amount of hair.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Tonsure."
Crosswords: Tonsure |
| English words defined with "tonsure": Zuchetto. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "tonsure": Regime de la Calotte. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "tonsure": tonsorial, tosh. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Tonsure" is also a word in the following language with the English translation in parentheses. French (tonsure). |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | All undergo the same tonsure, wear the same frock, eat the same black bread, sleep on the same straw, and die on the same ashes. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Tonsure" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 93.94% of the time. "Tonsure" is used about 33 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 93.94% | 31 | 62,296 |
| Lexical Verb (infinitive) | 3.03% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Lexical Verb (base form) | 3.03% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 33 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expression using "tonsure": take the tonsure. Additional references. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
tonsure | 10 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "tonsure"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | tonsuroj, tonsurë. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | كلل الرأس, مكلل الرأس, حليق (shaven), جز شعر الرأس, الجزء الحليق من رأس الراهب. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | тонзура, обръсвам (shave off), правя тонзура на, покалугерявам. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | tonzura. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | tonsure. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | tonsur. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | κούρευμα, κουρά (clipping, shearing, sheep-shearing). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | 'לוח "ראש. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | tonzúrát vág (to tonsure), tonzúra, hajkorona. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | tonsura. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | 落飾 (cutting one's hair before entering a monastery), 落髪 (cutting one's hair before entering a monastery), 剃髪 (cutting off the hair), 円顱 (shaven head). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | らくしょく (cutting one's hair before entering a monastery), らくはつ (cutting one's hair before entering a monastery), ていはつ (cutting off the hair), え"ろ (detour, journey, long road, route, shaven head). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | baarys. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | onsuretay tonsurar, tonsura. (various references) tunsoare (haircut, shear), tonsurã. (various references) тонзура. (various references) tonzura, obrijano mesto na glavi sveštenika, brijati glavu. (various references) tonsura. (various references) tonsur. (various references) başın tepesini traş etmek, başın tepesini traş etme. (various references) тонзура, виголити тонзуру. (various references) corun (crown). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | tonsura. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "tonsure": tonsured, tonsures. (additional references) | |
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"Tonsure" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: eonsure, Monzur, tensire, toensure, tonsura. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| Words rhyming with "tonsure" (pronounced 'Ton"sure'): Acupressure, Clausure, Closure, Cocksure, Commissure, Composure, Compressure, Contrafissure, foreclosure, Frisure, inclosure, Miscensure, Morsure, Oppressure, Overpressure, Poisure, Rasure, Reposure, scissure, Self-exposure, Supposure. (additional references) |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
Direct Anagrams: tenours. | |
| Words within the letters "e-n-o-r-s-t-u" | |
-1 letter: nestor, noters, ouster, outers, rouens, routes, souter, stoner, stoure, tenors, tenour, tensor, toners, trones, tuners, unrest. | |
-2 letters: euros, nerts, noter, notes, nurse, onset, outer, outre, rents, roset, rotes, rouen, roues, rouse, roust, route, routs, runes, runts, senor, seton, snore, snort, snout, steno, stern, stone, store, stour, tenor, terns, toner, tones, tonus, tores. | |
| Words containing the letters "e-n-o-r-s-t-u" | |
+1 letter: burstone, construe, counters, fortunes, mounters, neutrons, outearns, outsnore, recounts, remounts, roundest, routines, snoutier, southern, sturgeon, tonsured, tonsures, tourneys, trounces, turnsole, unsorted. | |
+2 letters: aeronauts, anestrous, buhrstone, burgonets, burrstone, burstones, buttoners, confuters, construed, construes, consulter, countries, courantes, courtesan, cretinous, curbstone, deuterons, eruptions, extrusion, fourteens, jointures, nectarous, neurotics, neutrinos, nocturnes, outlearns, outliners, outpreens, outrances, outranges, outsnored, outsnores, overhunts, overturns, rebuttons, roundlets, rousement, southerns, strenuous, sturgeons, sunstroke, tenebrous, tournedos, trouncers, trudgeons, turnovers, turnsoles, turnstone, undermost, undershot, undertows, unstopper, unthrones, uptowners, venturous, youngster. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)54 6F 6E 73 75 72 65 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references)- --- -. ... ..- .-. . |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01010100 01101111 01101110 01110011 01110101 01110010 01100101 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)T o n s u r e |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0054 006F 006E 0073 0075 0072 0065 |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)54818085878471 |
| 1. Definition 2. Crosswords 3. Images: Slideshow 4. Quotations: Fiction | 5. Usage Frequency 6. Expressions 7. Expressions: Internet 8. Translations: Modern | 9. Translations: Ancient 10. Derivations 11. Rhymes 12. Anagrams | 13. Orthography 14. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
