Forms: 1– Sion, 5 Syon, 7– Zion. [eccl. L. Siōn, Gr. Σεών, Σειών, a. Heb. tsīyōn.] The name of one of the hills of Jerusalem, on which the city of David was built, and which became the center of Jewish life and worship; in biblical and derived use, allusively for: The house or household of God; and hence connoting variously, the Israelites and their religious system, the Christian Church, heaven as the final home of believers, a place of worship or meeting-house (cf. BETHEL, EBENEZER 2).
c. 1000. Ps. lxxxiv. 7, in Ælfric, Hom., II. 334. Ða halȝan farað fram mihte to mihte; ealra goda God bið ȝesewen on Sion.
1382. Wyclif, Isa. li. 16. That thou plaunte heuenus, and founde erthe, and sey to Sion, My puple thou art.
1450–1530. Myrr. our Ladye, 2. As ye are doughtres of this bodely Syon, so ought ye to be doughtres of Syon gostly. Ibid., 147. By Syon … ys vnderstonde sowles that are gyuen to contemplacyon, where in oure lorde Iesu chryste ys sewrely stabled.
a. 1542. Wyatt, Penit. Ps., iv. 77. Make Syon, Lord, acordyng to thy will, Inward Syon, the Syon of the ghost.
1611. Bible, Ep. Ded. Many, who wished not well vnto our Sion.
1779. J. Newton, Hymn, ‘Glorious things of thee are spoken,’ v. Solid joys and lasting treasure None but Zion’s children know.
1823. Galt, R. Gilhaize, vii. That same city of St. Andrews is the Zion of Scotland. Of old, the glad tidings of salvation were first heard there.
1871. R. B. Vaughan, Life S. Thomas of Aquin, II. 859. As if the Basilica of S. Peter’s were brought into juxtaposition with the Zions and Ebenezers of our more modern days.
a. 1917. Nina Davis, trans. Juhudah Halevi, Ode to Zion, 1.
| Zion! of thine exiles’ peace take thought, | |
| The remnant of thy flock, who thine have sought! |
Hence Zioner, a member of an organized religious body; Zionless a. fig., having no center of common worship.
1760. Rutty, Spir. Diary (ed. 2), 158. O the carelessness of our Sioners.
1908. F. Spence, Chr. Reunion, ix. 170. The tribes must remain Zion-less without the Ecclesia.
