basileiolatry

English

WOTD – 20 August 2011

Alternative forms

• basileolatry, basilolatry

Etymology

Ancient Greek βασίλειος (basíleios, “of the king”) (from βασιλεύς (basileús, “king”)) +‎ -latry (from the Ancient Greek λατρεία (latreía, “worship”)).

Pronunciation

• (UK) enPR: băsĭlāŏʹlətri, IPA^(key): /basɪleɪˈɒlətɹi/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

Noun

basileiolatry (uncountable)

1. (chiefly in figurative use) Worship of the king.
   • 1872, Sacristy, volume II, footnote, page 10:

     At Westminster the established religion is Basileiolatry.

   • 1897, John Wickham Legg, Missale Ad Usum Ecclesie Westmonasteriensis‎^[1], volume III, page 1,407:

     The “basileiolatry” which we are told is now the prevailing worship at Westminster seems to have begun in the middle ages.

   • 1960, Johannes Quasten, Stephan Kuttner, editors, Traditio‎^[2], volume XVI, page 122:

     When…the Second Recension was revised, the revisers…took pains to give greater significance to the queen’s coronation.…Different as it was, the same spirit of basileiolatry inspired the alternative version.

   • 1963, Henry Gerald Richardson, George Osborne Sayles, The Governance of Mediaeval England‎^[3], page 142:

     Already in the tenth century basileiolatry…was established in England. The king was God’s thegn, His vicar upon earth.

   • 2000 April 23rd, François R. Velde, alt.talk.royalty, “Re: Male Swedish Crown Prince?”, message 25

     Maybe you have some half-baked mixture of feudal and absolutist theories in mind…and the basileiolatry you display suggests so.

   • 2008, Julian Goodare, Alasdair A. MacDonald, editors, Sixteenth-Century Scotland‎^[4], page 414:

     Boyd’s ensuing burst of proud Scots patriotism quickly gives place to a flood of boundless basileiolatry and optimism.

Related terms

Some English terms derived from the Ancient Greek βασιλεύς (basileús, “king”)

• basil
• basilean
• basilic
• basilica
• basilical
• basilicon
• basilics
• basilisk

Translations

worship of the king

• Finnish: kuninkaan palvonta
• Russian: царепокло́нство n (carepoklónstvo)
• Welsh: teyrnaddoliant m

References

• “Basileio·latry” listed on page 690 of volume I (A–B) of A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles [1st ed., 1885]
    Basileio·latry. nonce-wd. [f. Gr. βασίλειο-ς of the king + λατρεία worship.] King-worship. [¶] 1872 Sacristy II. 10 note, At Westminster the established religion is Basileiolatry.
• “basileiˈolatry” listed in the Oxford English Dictionary [2nd ed., 1989]