Wiktionary

excommunicate

English

edit

Etymology

edit

From Ecclesiastical Latin, Late Latin excommunicātus, perfect passive participle of excommunicō (“put out of the community”). By surface analysis, ex- +‎ communicate. Displaced native Old English āmǣnsumian.

Pronunciation

edit
Adjective and noun
  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˌɛkskəˈmjuːnɪkət/
  • (US) IPA(key): /ˌɛkskəˈmjunəkət/
  • Audio (US):(file)
Verb

Adjective

edit

excommunicate (not comparable)

  1. Excommunicated.

Noun

edit

excommunicate (plural excommunicates)

  1. An excommunicated person.
    Synonyms: excommunicant, excommunicatee

Verb

edit

excommunicate (third-person singular simple present excommunicates, present participle excommunicating, simple past and past participle excommunicated)

  1. (transitive) To officially exclude someone from membership of a church or religious community.
    • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXXVII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page 294:
      “Perhaps it is because I have been excommunicated. It’s absurd, but I feel like the Jackdaw of Rheims.” ¶ She winced and bowed her head. Each time that he spoke flippantly of the Church he caused her pain.
  2. (transitive, historical or figurative) To exclude from any other group; to banish.
    • 1982 December 18, Pat Califa, “Open Policy”, in Gay Community News, volume 10, number 22, page 5:
      Samois includes celebate [sic], heterosexual and bisexual women as well as lesbians, and I feel very strongly that this is the wisest choice. Our community is so fragile that we can't afford to fragment it by excommunicating non-lesbian women.
    • 1987, InfoWorld, volume 9, number 37, page 46:
      Although our Macs served us well, in those early, dark years Macintosh users were effectively excommunicated by the computer establishment.

Synonyms

edit
edit

Translations

edit
Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=excommunicate&oldid=80744764"