edify

English

Alternative forms

• ædify (archaic)

Etymology

(deprecated template usage)

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old French edifier (“to build, to edify”), from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin aedificare (“build”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɛdɪfaɪ/

Verb

edify (third-person singular simple present edif, present participle ies, simple past and past participle edified)

1. (now rare) To build, construct.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     That Castle was most goodly edifyde, / And plaste for pleasure nigh that forrest syde […]

2. (transitive) To instruct or improve morally or intellectually.
   • Gibbon

     It does not appear probable that our dispute [about miracles] would either edify or enlighten the public.

   • 1813, The Connecticut Evangelical Magazine, Vol. VI, page 455

     That they ought to edify one another by maintaining and promoting the knowledge of truth.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Francis Bacon to this entry?)

Related terms

• edification
• edificator
• edifice
• edifier
• edifying

Translations

To instruct or improve morally or intellectually

• Bulgarian: поучавам (bg) (poučavam), назидавам (bg) (nazidavam)
• French: édifier (fr)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• German: bestärken (de), erbauen (de), edifizieren
• Russian: назидать (ru) (nazidatʹ), наставля́ть (ru) (nastavljátʹ)

Anagrams

• deify