morient

English

Etymology

From Latin moriēns.

Adjective

morient (comparative more morient, superlative most morient)

1. (rare, literary) Dying, moribund.
   • 1659, John Arrowsmith, Armilla Catechetica. A Chain of Principles; Or, An Orderly Concatenation of Theological Aphorismes and Exercitations; Wherein, the Chief Heads of the Christian Religion Are Asserted and Improved: […], Cambridge, Cambs.: […] John Field, […], pages 200–201:

     Former ages have ſeen Antichriſt Naſcent, when the Biſhop of Rome firſt uſurped authority over all the Churches; Antichriſt Creſcent, when he began to maintain the doctrine of adoring Images, and praying to Saints departed; Antichriſt Regnant, when he exalted himſelf above Kings and Emperours, ſetting up his mitre above their crowns; yea Antichriſt Triumphant, when he once became Lord of the Catholick faith, ſo as none might beleeve without danger more or leſs, or otherwiſe then he preſcribed. To this obſervation made by one of our own learned countreymen, let me add; we our ſelves have ſeen him Antichriſt Cadent, falling and waining ever ſince [Martin] Luther, [John] Calvin, [William] Perkins and others were ſet on work by God to unmask him. And no doubt, if we do not, our poſterity ſhall ſee him Antichriſt morient, dying and giving up the ghoſt: for the Lord faithfull and true hath not onely threatned his ruine, but foretold that his day is coming.

   • 1671, Thomas Watson, The Mischief of Sinne, It Brings a Person Low, London: […] Tho[mas] Parkhurst, […], pages 48–49:

     We are Cadent, if not Morient; we do not want for ſin; there is a Spirit of wickedneſs in the Land.

   • 1679, Christopher Ness, A Distinct Discourse and Discovery of the Person and Period of Antichrist, wherein a Diligent Enquiry Is Made Concerning the Time of His Rise, Reign, and Ruine, the Answer whereunto Is Not Peremptorily Imposed, but Modesty Proposed. […], London: […] [T]he Author, […], page 64:

     [Richard] Crakanthorpe (in his Vigilius Dormitans) obſerves, that Antichrist was Naſcent when Rome uſurp’d authority firſt over all the Churches; 2ly he was Creſcent, when he maintained Adoring of Images, and Praying to Saints: 3ly Regnant, when he exalted Himſelf above Kings, and placed his Mitre above their Crowns: 4ly Triumphant, when he became Lord of the Catholick Faith: 5ly Cadent, we ſee him (ſaith he) in our Day, by [Martin] Luther, [John] Calvin, [William] Perkins, &c. who unmask’d him; and he adds a 6th Period, to wit, Morient, ſaying, If we do not, yet our Poſterity ſhall ſee him die, for God ſaith, that his day is coming, Pſ. 37. 13.

   • 1680, Christopher Ness, A Compleat and Compendious Church-History: Shewing, How It Hath Been from the Beginning of the World, to This Present Day. Being an Historical-Narrative, How the Power and Providence of God, According to His Promise, Hath Hitherto Confounded All the Damnable Plots of the Devil. […], London: […] T. H. and are to be Sold by Jacob Sampson, […]: And by Jonathan Wilkins, […], pages 461–462:

     This Book having already ſwell’d into a greater Bulk then at firſt Intended, (almoſt above a portable Pocket-Book) I muſt Referr my Reader to the Morient (or Dying) Period of Antichriſt, in my Diſcovery of Antichriſt, pag. 81. to pag. 110. and Confine my ſelf by Conſtraint) to point out onely the moſt Eminent Remarks of Divine Providence which hath Preſerv’d the Church in thoſe Two laſt Centuries, to wit, the Fifteen and the Sixteen Hundred Y. of Chriſt, becauſe it would require a Diſtinct Volum to Speak Diſtinctly of every Paſſage and Providence therein.

   • 1871 September 14, Stephen Pearl Andrews, “A New Theory of the Constitution of Universal Being. […]”, in Woodhull & Claflin’s Weekly, volume 3, number 20 (whole 72), New York, N.Y., published 1871 September 30, page 13, column 1:

     That the instantaneous and evanescent discharge (nascent and morient) which we recognize as a thought, and what the materialistic observer takes for the whole occurrence, is only an exaggerated manifestation, for the moment, by the suddenness and greatness of the disturbance, of what is, in fact, a permanent latent force which goes out, at this transition of dissolution, from the material compound or body in which it has now been moulded into a new and self-sustaining persistency, with still an ethereal, quasi-material body, and which survives as a newly eliminated centre and form of force in the universe—[…]

   • 1913, George Sigerson, The Saga of King Lir: A Sorrow of Story, Dublin, London: Maunsel and Company Ltd, page 8:

     Four babes, and morient two, the breath / Went in and out their pallid lips, ’twas all: / They moaned the loss of love they never knew / And hands they had not felt.

   • [1914], Annie Vivanti Chartres, “The Broken Rose”, in King Albert’s Book: A Tribute to the Belgian King and People from Representative Men and Women throughout the World, [London]: The Daily Telegraph, in conjunction with the Daily Sketch, the Glasgow Herald, and Hodder and Stoughton, page 103:

     Albert the good, the brave, the great, thy land / Lies at thy feet, a crushed and morient rose / Trampled and desecrated by thy foes.

   • 1929, Shane Leslie, The Anglo-Catholic: A Sequel to ‘The Cantab’, London: Chatto & Windus, page 227:

     In one last fond embrace salute the Bambino of the Ara Coeli, the Christus of Michael Angelo, the morient Gaul, the Teresan Ecstasy, Canova’s Princess, the Ludovisi Juno.

   • 1991, Evan S[helby] Connell, The Alchymist’s Journal, San Francisco, Calif.: North Point Press, →ISBN, pages 212–213:

     And so, being engrafted by nature, essences do not change, albeit we have seen herbs withdraw from their purpose to resuscitate the ailing and morient, stars deviate from their course to signal imminent events, and upon its passionate flight we have witnessed the Soul accomplish more than alchymic ligatures.