Molokan
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Borrowed from Russian молокан (molokan, “dairy-eater, nursing infant, white-colored”), plural молокане (molokane).
Noun
[edit]Molokan (plural Molokans or Molokane)
- A member of a Christian sect that evolved from "Spiritual Christian" Russian peasants who refused to obey the Russian Orthodox Church, beginning in the 1600s in the Russian Empire as an indigenous adaptation of the Protestant movement from Europe. Named for their heresy of eating (including dairy foods), instead of fasting, during Lent.
- A general term used (in place of a specific term) in literature and news in and about the Russian Empire to label any Spiritual Christian sect (real or imagined: Holy Roller, Doukhobor, Sabbatarian, Quaker, Mormon, etc.), pacifist, dissenter, non-conformist, coward, wimp.