orison

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Anglo-Norman oreison, oresoun etc. and Old French oraisun etc., from Latin ōrātiō, ōrātiōnem (“discourse, prayer”) (whence also English oration).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɒɹɪsən/, /ˈɒɹɪzən/

Noun

orison (plural orisons)

1. A prayer.
   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i], page 265, column 2, lines 88–89:

     The faire Ophelia! Nymph, in thy Orizons / Be all my ſinnes remembred.

   • 1917, Wilfred Owen, Anthem for Doomed Youth

       Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle

     Can patter out their hasty orisons.

2. Mystical contemplation or communion.
   • 1902, William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience, Lecture 3:

     We shall see later that the absence of definite sensible images is positively insisted on by the mystical authorities in all religions as the sine qua non of a successful orison, or contemplation of the higher divine truths.

   • 1911, Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism: A Study of the Nature and Development of Man's Spiritual Consciousness, Part I, Chapter 3

     Only in certain occult and mystics states: in orison, contemplation, ecstasy iand their allied conditions, does the self contrive to turn out the usual tenants, shut the "gateways of the flash," and let those submerged powers which are capable of picking up messages from another plane of being have their turn.

Related terms

• orate
• oration

Translations

A prayer

• Dutch: gebed (nl) n
• French: oraison (fr) f
• Greek: προσευχή (el) f (prosefchí), δέηση (el) f (déisi)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Russian: моли́тва (ru) f (molítva)
• Spanish: oración (es) f

Anagrams

• Nooris