recusant
1
9.9
- noun
- /ˈrɛkjʊsənt/
- UK
:
recusante
- Recusants and Dissenters were quite similar; a Recusant would be buried at night, for example, because they did not attend church services.
Examples
-
In my autobiography, I mention that some Havards were Recusants of the seventeenth century.
Blog text (3) -
Recusants and Dissenters were quite similar; a Recusant would be buried at night, for example, because they did not attend church services.
Blog text (3) -
She was both a recusant and highly ultramontane in her Catholicism.
Academic text (1991) -
She took umbrage at this query and advised me that the Harvard family had been recusants since the Reformation.
Blog text (3) -
And being adjudged guilty by reason of circuitous answers, our aged recusant expired before his auto-da-fé!
Fiction book (1991) -
The recusant openly defied the government's laws regarding religious practices, refusing to attend the required church services.
-
As a recusant, he faced persecution for his refusal to conform to the established religious customs of his community.
-
Many recusants were forced to practice their faith in secret, as they did not adhere to the state's mandated church attendance.
Synonyms
3
7.3
A person who does not follow the usual customs or rules of society
Antonyms
How Compliant
Surface Forms
Morphology
recusant = recus + ant
The noun meaning 'a person who refuses' arises from the same learned-form structure (Latin stem + '-ant'); learners are unlikely to deduce this agentive sense from familiar English components alone.
Etymology
A recusant comes from Latin recusare 'to refuse' and originally named people who would not go to the official church. Today a recusant is any person who refuses to obey laws, customs, or authority.