basilolatry

English

Etymology

Ancient Greek βασιλ(εύς) (basil(eús), “king”) + English -latry (from the Ancient Greek λατρεία (latreía), latreia, “worship”); compare basileiolatry, basileolatry, basilic, and basilisk

Pronunciation

• (UK) enPR: băsĭlŏʹlətri, IPA^(key): /basɪlˈɒlətɹi/

Noun

basilolatry (uncountable)

1. basileiolatry
   • 1876, Henry Kingsley, Fireside Studies I, “The Old-Fashioned Member”, page 261

     [Bp Samuel] Parker has been more than usually offensive in his Basilolatry (if we may coin a word), and [Andrew] Marvell says, “His Majesty” (it would seem) “may lay by his Dieu, and make use only of his mon droit.”

   • 1902, The Month, C, page 89:

     The fact is that there is not in the Roman liturgy…any of the extravagant basilolatry which we find in the Book of Common Prayer.

   • 1904, Louise Imogen Guiney, Robert Emmet, page 68:

     Individualism…was not quite at its best in the self-righteous era of George the Third, and under the Establishment which was regulated by a now almost obsolete basilolatry.

   • 1904, Louise Imogen Guiney, Hurrell Froude, page 214:

     His animus…led him to handle as self-evident fallacies the darling predilections of centuries of British basilolatry.

   • 1914, Wilfrid Ward, editor, The Dublin Review, CLIV, page 250:

     Why Thomas Cromwell himself should have contrasted his “mean parentage” with his “high estate,” except out of sheer servility of spirit, out of what has been called basilolatry, the saving dread of the Tudors, is not apparent.

   • 1993, Aidan Nichols, The Panther and the Hind, page 24:

     The ‘basilolatry’ or king-worship which came to disfigure the Prayer Book stands in marked contrast to the sober intercessions of the Roman liturgy of the period for both emperor and king.

   • 2000, Richard Henry Popkin, “Grégoire’s American Involvements”, essay 8 in The Abbé Grégoire and His World, eds. Jeremy D. Popkin and Richard Henry Popkin, page 159

     The calling of the Sanhedrin raised Grégoire’s concern about what he called Basilolatry, the attempt to deify a ruler.

Translations

basileiolatry — see basileiolatry