Levite

See also: levite, lévite, lévité, levité, and Lévite

English

Borrowed from Late Latin Levītēs, Lēvīta, itself borrowed from Ancient Greek Λευῑ́της (Leuī́tēs). Synchronically as if Levi +‎ -ite.

Levite (plural Levites)

A member of the Hebrew tribe of Levi.
- 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Judges 17:7:
  And there was a young man out of Bethlehemjudah of the family of Judah, who was a Levite, and he sojourned there.
(obsolete, humorous) A clergyman.
(now historical) A type of loose women's dress.
- 1779, Horace Walpole, letter, 15 November:
  A habit-maker […] is gone stark in love with Lady Ossory, on fitting her with the new dress, I think they call it a Levite, and says he never saw so glorious a figure […] .
- 2003, Aileen Ribeiro, in Robyn Asleson, Notorious Muse, Yale UNiversity Press 2003, p. 109:
  Gainsborough shows her wearing a blue and white striped silk wrapping gown, known as a levite: a clever and subtle choice of costume, vaguely ‘oriental’ in mood, deriving its name from the theatre.

member of the Hebrew tribe of Levi