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Circumcision   Listen
noun
Circumcision  n.  
1.
The act of cutting off the prepuce or foreskin of males, or the internal labia of females. Note: The circumcision of males is practiced as a religious rite by the Jews, Muslims, etc. Circumcision of male infants is also a common practice as a hygienic measure, to reduce incidence of infection of the penis.
2.
(Script.)
(a)
The Jews, as a circumcised people.
(b)
Rejection of the sins of the flesh; spiritual purification, and acceptance of the Christian faith.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Circumcision" Quotes from Famous Books



... the Solomon Islands, so low a race that they are ignorant both of pottery and weaving, and wear only a loin cloth, "have the same ideas of what is decent with regard to certain acts and exposures that we ourselves have;" so that it is difficult to observe whether they practice circumcision. (Somerville, Journal of the ...
— Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 1 (of 6) • Havelock Ellis

... Pauline than to the Petrine doctrines. In his hands Mosaism became spiritualized until it really lost its identity, and was transformed into a code fit for the whole Roman world. And we do not doubt that if any one had asked Jesus whether circumcision were an essential prerequisite for admission to the Messianic kingdom, he would have given the same answer which Paul afterwards gave. We agree with Zeller and Strauss that, "as Luther was a more liberal spirit than the Lutheran divines of the succeeding generation, and Sokrates ...
— The Unseen World and Other Essays • John Fiske

... he inflicted upon him was sedulous instructions to virtue." Yet this truly comic paper does not probably know that it is comic, any more than the kleptomaniac knows that he steals, or than John Milton knew he was a humorist when he wrote a hymn upon the circumcision, and spent his honeymoon in composing a treatise on divorce. No more again did Goethe know how exquisitely humorous he was when he wrote, in his Wilhelm Meister, that a beautiful tear glistened in Theresa's right eye, and then went on to explain that it glistened in her right eye and not in her ...
— Selections from Previous Works - and Remarks on Romanes' Mental Evolution in Animals • Samuel Butler

... both in the end, If they would but pursue the proper way Which fortune plainly seem'd to recommend; And then he added, that he needs must say, ''T would greatly tend to better their condition, If they would condescend to circumcision. ...
— Don Juan • Lord Byron

... bricks and mortar. The Chinese and Indians are not satisfied with one wife, but both nations marry as many as they please, or can maintain. Rice is the common food of the Indians, who eat no wheat; but the Chinese use both indifferently. Circumcision is not practised either by the Chinese or Indians. The Chinese worship idols, before whom, they fall down and make prayers, and they have books which explain the articles of their religion. The ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 1 • Robert Kerr

... pass away—we are being educated to believe that all people are equal, and feel that sentiments like these are utterly wrong." A third claimed that the people must keep their guns, because "at our circumcision we were given a shield and an assagai, and told never to part with them; and that if ever we came back from an expedition and our shield and assagai were not found before our house, we should die the death." And a fourth, ...
— Impressions of South Africa • James Bryce

... to Antioch, I resisted him to the face, because he stood condemned. For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles: but when they came, he drew back and separated himself, fearing them that were of the circumcision. And the rest of the Jews [the Jewish Christians] dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that even Barnabas was carried away with their dissimulation. But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to ...
— Who Wrote the Bible? • Washington Gladden

... up—in fact, "nothing was inserted that I did not fully comprehend and approve of." He was to call at Madeira for a supply of wine; to sail for the Cape of Good Hope and there refresh his men; then to look for Cape Circumcision, placed by M. Bouvet in 54 degrees South, 11 degrees 20 minutes East, to determine if it formed part of a continent, and if so to explore it, following the coast and endeavouring to get as near to the South ...
— The Life of Captain James Cook • Arthur Kitson

... four, intermarrying classes. In the matter of rites and ceremonies, too, they are, in the opinion of Messrs. Spencer and Gillen, more advanced than, say, the Euahlayi. They practise universal 'subincision' of the males, and circumcision, in place of the more primitive knocking out of the front teeth. Their ceremonies are very prolonged: in Messrs. Spencer and Gillen's experience, rites lasted for four months during a great tribal gathering. That the Arunta could provide supplies for so prolonged and large an assembly, argues ...
— The Euahlayi Tribe - A Study of Aboriginal Life in Australia • K. Langloh Parker

... to their contemporaries, incidentally disclose to us the following circumstances:—Christ's descent and family; his innocence; the meekness and gentleness of his character (a recognition which goes to the whole Gospel history); his exalted nature; his circumcision; his transfiguration; his life of opposition and suffering; his patience and resignation; the appointment of the Eucharist, and the manner of it; his agony; his confession before Pontius Pilate; his stripes, crucifixion, and burial; his resurrection; his appearance after it, first to Peter, ...
— Evidences of Christianity • William Paley

... covenant was also purely spiritual in its character, the condition of its blessings being nothing else than faith. The apostle Paul urges the fact that this covenant was made with Abraham before his circumcision, lest any should say that it was conditioned wholly or in part upon a carnal ordinance: "He received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised." ...
— Companion to the Bible • E. P. Barrows

... for, according to learned commentators, it is not the thigh, but the phallus that is meant; such tact having, in the opinion of the Rabbins, been introduced for the purpose of doing honour to circumcision. ...
— Aphrodisiacs and Anti-aphrodisiacs: Three Essays on the Powers of Reproduction • John Davenport

... the camel-man, husband of Khadra, persisted. "Besides, there is no great feastday at this time, not even a wedding or a circumcision, or we should have heard before we started away that it was to be. Such playing, if from the hands of man, would mean ...
— A Soldier of the Legion • C. N. Williamson

... reunions. But the day after! Ah-heigh! That is the first of Carnival, and all the theatres are opened, and there is no end to the amusements—or was not, in the old time. Now, they never begin. A week later comes the day of the Lord's Circumcision, and then the next holiday is Easter. The Nativity, the Circumcision, and the Resurrection—behold! these are the three mysteries of the Christian faith. Of what religion are ...
— Venetian Life • W. D. Howells

... with arms. Are slaveholders willing to put swords and pistols into the hands of their slaves? He was as a father among his servants; what are planters and masters generally among theirs? When the institution of circumcision was established, Abraham was commanded thus; "He that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man-child in your generations; he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger which is not of thy seed." And to render this command with regard to his servants ...
— The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Omnibus • American Anti-Slavery Society

... possible to turn to a good and true Religion whilst remaining in the bonds of matrimony, for God asks of us no more than the religious heart. And therefore St. Paul says to the Romans: "For he is not a Jew which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of ...
— The Banquet (Il Convito) • Dante Alighieri

... they did in the days of the discovery. They believe in the sacred character of Fire, and regard it as the mysterious element of the Universe, which typifies the Divinity. They believe, and practice strictly, with the descendants of Abraham, the law of separation, but not the practice of circumcision. With the ancient Phoenicians, they attribute extraordinary powers, to the wisdom and subtlety of the Serpent, and this reptile holds a high place in their mythology. They regard the Tortoise, as the original increment, and medium of the creation ...
— Incentives to the Study of the Ancient Period of American History • Henry R. Schoolcraft

... Sinless, to atone for sin; Welcomes suffering for our good, Takes His Saviour's name in blood, And by Circumcision's pain Makes the old year ...
— Memoirs of James Robert Hope-Scott, Volume 2 • Robert Ornsby

... George had robb'd it of its mud; Smoother than Pegasus' old shoe, Ere Vulcan comes to make him new. The board on which we set our a—s, Is not so smooth as are thy verses; Compared with which (and that's enough) A smoothing-iron itself is rough. Nor praise I less that circumcision, By modern poets call'd elision, With which, in proper station placed, Thy polish'd lines are firmly braced.[1] Thus a wise tailor is not pinching, But turns at every seam an inch in: Or else, be sure, your broad-cloth breeches Will ne'er be smooth, nor hold their stitches. Thy ...
— Poems (Volume II.) • Jonathan Swift

... at last, and it was also the time of the Feast of the Passover, being in the month of Nisan. This was a cause of joy to Israel, for he was eager to triumph over his enemies face to face, and he could not wait eight other days for the Feast of the circumcision. So he set a supper fit for a king: the fore-leg of a sheep and the fore-leg of an ox, the egg roasted in ashes, the balls of Charoseth, the three Mitzvoth, and the wine, And by the time the supper was ready the midwife had been summoned, and it was the ...
— The Scapegoat • Hall Caine

... Gonorrhoeal paraphymosis and phymosis. Effect of circumcision. Protrusion of the glans through an ulcerated opening in the prepuce. Congenital hypospadias. Ulcerated perforations of the urethra. Congenital epispadias. Urethral fistula, stricture, and catheterism. Sacculated urethra. Stricture opposite ...
— Surgical Anatomy • Joseph Maclise

... the new creation—that which is intended in Revelation (3:14), where Christ is spoken of as the Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God, and that which Paul means when he says that in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is worth anything, "but the ...
— Orthodoxy: Its Truths And Errors • James Freeman Clarke

... hear you; but by the same Argument, Circumcision of the Flesh may be defended; for that moderates the Itch of Coition, and brings Pain. If all hated Fish as bad as I do, I would scarce put a Parricide ...
— Colloquies of Erasmus, Volume I. • Erasmus

... covenant with Abraham was circumcision, and this became the perpetual rite by which his descendants were admitted to the rights and privileges of that covenant. "Every male child shall be circumcised." But this rite was an outward symbol of "a circumcision ...
— The Theology of Holiness • Dougan Clark

... are admitted into the Church, and consequently made members of Christ, its Head. The Jews were admitted into the Church by circumcision, so are the ...
— The Story of My Life - Being Reminiscences of Sixty Years' Public Service in Canada • Egerton Ryerson



Words linked to "Circumcision" :   Bris, Anglican Church, Brith, Feast of the Circumcision, rite, January 1, Church of Rome, Roman Catholic Church, Western Church, religious rite, Berith, female circumcision, cutting off, abscission, Church of England, Roman Catholic, Berit, feast day, fete day



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