Wiktionary

churchical

English edit

WOTD – 23 July 2019

Etymology edit

From church +‎ -ical.

Pronunciation edit

Adjective edit

churchical (comparative more churchical, superlative most churchical)

  1. (Christianity, informal) Pertaining to or characteristic of church; ecclesiastical.
    Synonyms: churchish, churchlike, churchy
    Antonym: unecclesiastical
    • [1863, “A Dutchman’s Difficulties with the English Language, as Experienced by Mynheer Steven van Brammelendam”, in Donald McLeod, editor, Good Words, volume IV, London: Alexander Strahan and Co. […], →OCLC, page 873:
      When I rode through the streets of your giant-like town (applause), and when I saw the many churches which heave their towers up stairs (cheers), I thought, the English are a very churchical people (loud cheers). I therefore wonder not that you also are an educational people, for religion is the mother of education, and where there are many churches, there we may expect that there are also many schools.
      The words are spoken by a person not entirely fluent in English.]
    • 1982, Darshana International: An International Quarterly of Philosophy, Psychology, Psychical Research, Religion, Mysticism & Sociology, volume 22, Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh, India: J. P. Atreya, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 67:
      First of all, very many ages long the churchical dogmas taught that experiencing lust would bs a sin and sexual intercourse was only tolerated when the aim would be propagation.
    • 2015 February 9, B. C. Stewart, Deep Waters‎[1], Bloomington, Ind.: Balboa Press, Hay House, →ISBN:
      Kate and Max glanced at each other and grinned before Kate answered, “Oh I'm sure Dawn might want to go. But I don't know about Christina, she has a busy social life. She may have something churchical going on." / "Churchical?" frowned Thomas. / "You know, something to do with the church. She heads the youth team and is in the choir, as well as being an altar server and she even teaches grade 2 Sunday school."
    • 2017, Nathaniel Mackey, Late Arcade‎[2], New York, N.Y.: New Directions Publishing, →ISBN:
      [S]he put the bow [of the double bass] away and went back to playing pizzicato, plucking the strings with chill serenity, ritual aplomb. She stood with her back straight, addressing the strings with a churchical assurance, churchical rectitude, as patient a fingerwalk as there ever was.
  2. (chiefly Jamaica, music) Belonging to a style of Reggae music that reflects a spiritual sensibility.
    Antonym: heartical
    • 1984, Yoshiko S. Nagashima, Rastafarian Music in Contemporary Jamaica: A Study of Socioreligious Music of the Rastafarian Movement in Jamaica (Performance in Culture; no. 3), Tokyo: Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia & Africa, →OCLC, page 94:
      To sum up, Rastafarian music has developed from the traditional chanting and drumming of predominantly "churchical" type to more "secular kind of projection of philosophy, not just confined to chanting but to popular, vernacular, more funky style … and of more general awareness of what is happening in different kinds of relationships."
    • 2000, Stephen Foehr, Jamaican Warriors: Reggae, Roots & Culture, London: Sanctuary Publ., →ISBN, page 95:
      In Rasta music there is the churchical (religious music) and the earthical (music for entertainment). In chants and churchical songs, the accent of the lifeline ridim is on the first and third beat, while in earthical songs the accent is on the second and fourth beat.
    • 2006, The Fader, New York, N.Y.: Fader, Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 164:
      In the mid-'90s, the murder of his [Buju Banton's] running mate Panhead [i.e., Pan Head, pseudonym of Anthony Johnson] forced him to question the gun talk and controversy that made him famous; the change of heart audible in the slower, churchical rhythms of his third LP 'Til Shiloh broke the mold a second time, in a sense making peace with [Bob] Marley's restless ghost.
    • 2011, Erik Davis, Nomad Codes: Adventures in Modern Esoterica, Portland, Or.: YETI Books, Verse Chorus Press, →ISBN, page 245:
      The chants and "churchical" beats of traditional Nyabhingi drumming played a vital role in Rastafarian Grounations, communal celebrations notable for their ital feasts, ganja smoking, and mystical theologizing.
  3. (chiefly Jamaica, Rastafari) Pertaining to the strain of Rastafarian culture that emphasizes a traditional theocracy.
    • 1991, E[verton] S. P. McPherson, Rastafari and Politics: Sixty Years of a Developing Cultural Ideology: A Sociology of Development Perspective (H.I.M. Centenary Celebration Work; no. 1), Clarendon, Jamaica: Black International Iyahbinghi Press, →ISBN, page 22:
      Ethiopia, the Saviour of the world. Ethiopia as an Empire with hundreds of Ethnic groups with their religious beliefs centered around the House of David; these traditions and customs were taken to Jamaica and were kept alive by underground secret society with the churchical order dealing with divinity and person of the King of Ethiopia, as were passed down orally by the elders to each generation which maintained the faith of their fathers and did not bow to Baal and its idolatry by becoming protestantised.
    • 1998, Ennis B[arrington] Edmonds, “The Structure and Ethos of Rastafari”, in Nathaniel Samuel Murrell, William David Spencer, Adrian Anthony McFarlane, editors, Chanting down Babylon: The Rastafari Reader, Philadelphia, Pa.: Temple University Press, →ISBN, page 351:
      These more formal groups [of Rastafarians] fall into two categories: "churchical" and "statical." The churchical are so designated because of their emphasis on the development of Rastafarian religious culture and behavior and on the cultivation of African cultural consciousness and lifestyle. Prince Edward's Ethiopian National Congress, Claudius Henry's Peacemakers Association, the Twelve Tribes of Israel, The Rastafarian Theocratic Government, and the Sons of Negus are examples of churchical Rastafarian organizations. The statical groups gain this designation from their commitment to more political and social goals.
    • 2006, Werner Zips, editor, Rastafari: A Universal Philosophy in the Third Millennium, Kingston, Jamaica: Ian Randle Publishers, →ISBN, page 135:
      In line with Rastafari conceptions of an ancient theocracy, their concept of self-determination takes the form of a churchical state.
    • 2014, Jeanne Christensen, “‘From the Cross to the Throne’”, in Rastafari Reasoning and the RastaWoman: Gender Constructions in the Shaping of Rastafari Livity (Critical Africana Studies: African, African American, and Caribbean Interdisciplinary and Intersectional Studies), Lanham, Md., Plymouth, Devon: Lexington Books, Rowman & Littlefield, →ISBN, page 110:
      With this caution in mind I suggest that the militant orientation tends to be a more masculine expression, while the churchical remains closer to traditional Afro-Christian gender roles.

Translations edit

pertaining to or characteristic of church — see ecclesiastical

Further reading edit

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