sermon
nounverbattested in dialogue
- United Kingdom//ˈsɜː.mən//
- United States//ˈsɝ.mən//
Religious discourse; a written or spoken address on a religious or moral matter.
noun
- 1
Religious discourse; a written or spoken address on a religious or moral matter.
One saint's day in mid-term a certain newly appointed suffragan-bishop came to the school chapel, and there preached on “The Inner Life.” He at once secured attention by his informal method, and when presently the coughing of Jarvis […] interrupted the sermon, he altogether captivated his audience with a remark about cough lozenges being cheap and easily procurable.
- 2
A lengthy speech of reproval.
Etymology
From Middle English sermoun, from Anglo-Norman sermun and/or Old French sermon, from Latin sermō, sermōnem, from Proto-Indo-European *sermō, from *ser- (“to bind”) + *-mō. Displaced native Old English wordpredicung, literally word + preaching.
verb
- 1
obsoleteTo discourse to or of, as in a sermon.
January 23 1583, Edmund Spenser, letter to Walter Raleigh To some I know this methode will seem displeasaunt, which had rather have good discipline delivered plainly in way of precepts, or sermoned at large, as they use, then thus clowdily enwrapped in allegorical devises
- 2
obsoleteTo tutor; to lecture.
Come, sermon me no further.
Etymology
From Middle English sermonen, from Old French sermoner, from sermon (see above).
Forms
- plural
- sermons
- past tense
- sermoned
- past participle
- sermoned
- present participle
- sermoning
- third person singular
- sermons
sermon · Religious discourse; a written or spoken address on a religious or moral matter.
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