imprecation
See also: imprécation
English
WOTD – 3 February 2010
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Latin imprecātiō (“calling down of curses”), from imprecor (“call down, invoke”).
Pronunciation
- (UK, US) IPA(key): /ˌɪm.pɹɪˈkeɪ.ʃən/, /ˌɪm.pɹəˈkeɪ.ʃən/
- Rhymes: -eɪʃən
Audio (UK) (file)
Noun
imprecation (countable and uncountable, plural imprecations)
- The act of imprecating, or invoking evil upon someone; a prayer that a curse or calamity may befall someone.
- 1679, [John] Dryden; [Nathaniel] Lee, Oedipus: A Tragedy. […], London: […] R. Bentley and M. Magnes […], OCLC 228724901, Act I, page 15:
- Hear then this dreadful imprecation; hear it: / 'Tis lay'd on all; not any one exempt: […]
- 1893, Stephen Crane, Maggie, Girl of the Streets, ch. 10:
- Her son turned to look at her as she reeled and swayed in the middle of the room, her fierce face convulsed with passion, her blotched arms raised high in imprecation. "May Gawd curse her forever," she shrieked.
-
- A curse.
- 1838, Boz [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], chapter III, in Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy’s Progress. […], volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Richard Bentley, […], OCLC 558204586:
- Mr. Gamfield growled a fierce imprecation on the donkey generally, but more particularly on his eyes; and, running after him, bestowed a blow on his head.
- 1847 December, Ellis Bell [pseudonym; Emily Brontë], chapter V, in Wuthering Heights, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Thomas Cautley Newby, […], OCLC 156123328:
- He drank the spirits and impatiently bade us go; terminating his command with a sequel of horrid imprecations too bad to repeat or remember.
- 1905, Upton Sinclair, chapter XVII, in The Jungle, New York, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 26 February 1906, OCLC 1150866071:
- All life had turned to rottenness and stench in them--love was a beastliness, joy was a snare, and God was an imprecation.
-
Related terms
- deprecation
- imprecate
- imprecatory
- precation
Translations
act of imprecating, or invoking evil upon someone
|
a curse
|
Anagrams
- reimpaction