incense
See also: incensé
English edit
Etymology edit
From Middle English encens, from Old French encens (“sweet-smelling substance”) from Late Latin incensum (“burnt incense”, literally “something burnt”), neuter past participle of incendō (“I set on fire”). Compare incendiary. Cognate with Spanish encender and incienso.
Pronunciation edit
- Noun:
- Verb:
- Rhymes: (verb) -ɛns
Noun edit
incense (countable and uncountable, plural incenses)
- A perfume used in the rites of various religions.
- 1820, [Walter Scott], chapter XIII, in The Abbot. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne & Co.] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and for Archibald Constable and Company, and John Ballantyne, […], →OCLC, page 281:
- When the folding-doors were on such solemn occasions thrown open, and the new Abbot appeared on the threshold in full-blown dignity, with ring and mitre, and dalmatique and crosier, his hoary standard-bearers and his juvenile dispensers of incense preceding him, and the venerable train of monks behind him, with all besides which could announce the supreme authority to which he was now raised, his appearance was a signal for the magnificent jubilate to rise from the organ and music-loft, and to be joined by the corresponding bursts of Alleluiah from the whole assembled congregation.
- (figurative) Homage; adulation.
Hyponyms edit
- joss stick, incense stick
Derived terms edit
Related terms edit
Translations edit
perfume often used in the rites of various religions
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Verb edit
incense (third-person singular simple present incenses, present participle incensing, simple past and past participle incensed)
- (obsolete) To set on fire; to inflame; to kindle; to burn.
- [1611?], Homer, “(please specify |book=I to XXIV)”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., The Iliads of Homer Prince of Poets. […], London: […] Nathaniell Butter, →OCLC; The Iliads of Homer, Prince of Poets, […], new edition, volumes (please specify the book number), London: Charles Knight and Co., […], 1843, →OCLC:
- Twelve Trojan princes wait on thee, and labour to incense / Thy glorious heap of funeral.
- (transitive) To anger or infuriate.
- I think it would incense him to learn the truth.
- (archaic) To incite, stimulate.
- (transitive) To offer incense to.
- late 14th century, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Second Nun's Tale, The Canterbury Tales, line 410-413:
- And after this Almachius hastily
Bad his ministres fecchen openly
Cecile, so that she mighte in his presence
Doon sacrifyce, and Iupiter encense.- And after this, Almachius hastily
Ordered his ministers to fetch publicly
Cecile, so that she might in his presence
Do sacrifice and burn incense to Jupiter.
- And after this, Almachius hastily
- late 14th century, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Second Nun's Tale, The Canterbury Tales, line 410-413:
- (transitive) To perfume with, or as with, incense.
- c. 1603 (date written), Iohn Marston, The Malcontent, London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for William Aspley, […], published 1604, →OCLC, Act III, scene ii:
- To haue her bound, incenſed with wanton ſweetes, / Her vaines fild hie with heating delicates, / […] / O Ithaca can chaſteſt Penelope hold out.
- 1837, Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution: A History […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, (please specify the book or page number):
- Neither, for the future, shall any man or woman, self-styled noble, be incensed,—foolishly fumigated with incense, in Church; as the wont has been.
- 1911, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, volume 9, page 294:
- The priests solemnly incensed the girl who personated the goddess.
Translations edit
anger, infuriate
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Anagrams edit
Galician edit
Verb edit
incense
- inflection of incensar:
Latin edit
Participle edit
incēnse
References edit
- “incense”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- incense in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
- incense in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
- “incense”, in The Perseus Project (1999) Perseus Encyclopedia[1]
- “incense”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
Portuguese edit
Verb edit
incense
- inflection of incensar: