attrectation

English

Etymology

From Latin attrectatio, from ad + tractare (“to handle”).

Noun

attrectation (uncountable)

1. (obsolete) Frequent handling or touching.
   • 1651, Jer[emy] Taylor, “Section I”, in Clerus Domini: or, A Discourse of the Divine Institution, Necessity, Sacrednesse, and Separation of the Office Ministerial. […], London: […] R[ichard] Royston […], published 1655, →OCLC, paragraph 7, page 4:

     [S]ince that materiall part and exteriour actions of Religion could be acted and perſonated by any man, there was ſcarce any thing left to make it religious, but the attrectation of the rites by a holy perſon; […]

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “attrectation”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)