Forms: 1–5 Crist, 4 Criste, 5 Cryst, 6 Christe, Chryst, 4, 6– Christ. [OE. crist = OS. and OHG. crist, krist (OHG. also christ), ad. L. Chrīst-us, a. Gr. Χρῑστός Christ, sb. use of χρῑστός anointed (f. χρῑειν to anoint), a translation of Heb. māshīaχ, MESSIAH, ‘anointed,’ more fully mi’shīaχ yahweh the Lord’s Anointed. This word and its derivatives and cognates (including CHRISM and its derivatives) were very rarely (and perh. only accidentally) spelt with ch- in ME., but this has been the regular fashion since 1500; in French it began in the preceding century.]
1. The Messiah or ‘Lord’s Anointed’ whose advent was the subject of Jewish prophecy and expectation. (Only in versions of the N. T. and direct references to it; in the Geneva and 1611 versions often preceded by the.)
c. 950. Lindisf. Gosp., Matt. xxiv. 24. Arises forðon wiðerwearde crist & lease witʓo.
c. 1160. Hatton Gosp., ibid. Lease Cristes, & lease witegen. Ibid., Luke iii. 15. Hwæder he crist wære.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 12780. Elias or christ, queþer es he.
1382. Wyclif, Matt. xxiv. 24. False Cristis and false prophetis.
1557. Bible (Genev.), John x. 24. If thou be the Christe, tel vs playnly.
1882. Farrar, Early Chr., II. 425. The word Antichrist … may mean … either those who try to pass themselves off as Christs, or those who set themselves in open array against him.
2. The title given to Jesus of Nazareth, as embodying the fulfilment of Messianic prophecy and expectation; since the earliest Christian times treated as a proper name.
c. 950. Lindisf. Gosp., Matt. i. 16. Hælend þe is ʓenemned crist.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 50. Te soðe sunne, þet is Jesu Crist.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 118 (Cott.). How crist birth bigan to brew.
c. 1394. P. Pl. Crede, 37. For Cristes loue.
c. 1425. Wyntoun, Cron., V. ii. 103. Eftyr þe Resurrectyoune of Cryst and his Ascensyoune.
1539. Tonstall, Serm. Palm Sund. (1823), 23. The obedience of Isaac is farre beneth Chrystis obedience.
1881. Stanley, Chr. Inst., iii. 65. An antistrophic hymn to Christ as God.
b. Used as a common noun with reference to the character or office of the Christ as a divinely appointed Ruler and Savior.
1850. Tennyson, In Mem., CVI. viii. Ring in the Christ that is to be.
1855. T. Parker, Disc. Religion, V. v. (1875), 308–9. A Christ outside the man is nothing…. Each man must be his own Christ, or he is no Christian.
† 3. Used in versions of the O. T. as a rendering of L. chrīstus (Heb. māshīach, Messiah) applied to divinely appointed rulers; = ANOINTED 3. Obs.
c. 1000. Ags. Ps. lxxxiii[i]. 9. Oncnaw onsyne cristes þines.
a. 1310. E. E. Psalter, civ. [cv.] 15. Nil yhe negh min cristes nou.
1382. Wyclif, Isa. xlv. 1. These thingus seith the Lord to my crist, Ciro [1388 to my crist, Cirus; 1535 Coverdale, vnto Cirus his anoynted].
1609. Bible (Douay), Isa. xlv. Because al kinges that reigned among the Jewes were anointed with oyle, Cyrus is called christ.
4. Comb., as Christ-consciousness, -dividing adj., -truth, etc. (In early ME., and esp. in northern dial., crist was often used in the genitive without inflexion, as crist lai, crist lore, etc.) Christ-dust (U.S.), see quot.; † Christ-maker, an opprobrious term for the priest who consecrated the host. See also CHRIST-LIKE, -LIKENESS, -TIDE, -WARD.
1840. G. S. Faber, Regenerat., 224. A God-bearer or a *Christ-bearer.
1833. Cruse, Eusebius, VIII. x. 330. These *Christ-bearing martyrs.
1885. H. S. Holland, Logic & Life (ed. 3), 261. One side of the Christ-bearing Character.
1649. J. Cardell, Morbus Epidem. (1650), 35. Christianity is *Christ-conformity.
1858. H. Bushnell, Serm. New Life, 101. A kind of *Christ-consciousness is opened in us.
1854. W. Waterworth, Eng. & Rome, 101. The decision of the Fathers against the *Christ-dividing Nestorius.
1884. Lydia W. Baldwin, Yankee Sch. Teacher, vii. 49. Making up some *Christ-dust for supper. (This is the common name for flour, signifying its rarity in the daily fare [of the negroes].)
a. 1711. Ken, Poet. Wks. (1721), I. 420. ’Twas sung with *Christ-enamoured Heat. Ibid., I. 422. Which *Christ-enamourments reviv’d. Ibid., I. 123. *Christ-hymning Verse. Ibid., I. 408. The *Christ-imitating Race.
1647. J. Birkenhead, Assembly-Man (1662–3), 14. ’Tis larded with fine new words, as Savingable, Muchly, *Christ-Jesusness, &c.
1581. J. Bell, Haddon’s Answ. Osor., 437 b. This *Christe-maker taking upp … this hoste.
1659. Baxter, Key Cath., xxxv. 257. A *Christ-Representative, or Vicar General.
1884. Chr. World, 21 Feb., 140/2. *Christ-truth has struggled … against various forms of wrong.
5. Possessive combs., as † Christ’s-curse, ? a curse in the name of Christ. Esp. in names of plants, as Christ’s-eye, Inula Oculus-Christi; Christ’s-hair, Scolopendrium vulgare; † Christ’s herb, the Christmas Rose; † Christ’s ladder, the Centaury, Erythræa Centaurium; Christ’s thorn, a name given to several thorny shrubs, fabled or supposed to have formed Christ’s crown of thorns; † Christ’s-wort = Christ’s herb.
c. 1500. Cocke Lorell’s B. (1843), 2. Therfore he hath many a *crystes curse.
1878. Britten & Holland, Eng. Plant-n., *Christ’s Hair. Scolopendrium vulgare.—Guernsey, ‘because of the single black fibrovascular bundle in the leaf-stalk.’—Mr. W. G. Piper.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, 350. *Christes herbe hath great thicke greene leaues, cut into seuen or eyght parts.
1486. Bk. St. Albans, C v. a. Take an herbe callid *cristis lardder.
1879. Prior, Plant-n., Christ’s Ladder, an old name, for we find it as Christis leddere in catalogues of the fourteenth century.
1562. Turner, Herbal, II. 115 a. Rhamnus … was called *Christes thorne, as though Christe had bene cround with rhamnus.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, 696.
1794. Martyn, Rousseau’s Bot., xvi. 207. [Rhamnus] Paliurus or Christ’s Thorn … Being very common in Palestine … is supposed to be the thorn with which our Saviour was crowned.
1866. Treas. Bot., 837. Two common eastern plants usually bear the name of Christ’s Thorn: one the Zisyphus Spina-Christi, and the other the [Paliurus aculeatus].
1878. Britten & Holland, Eng. Plant-n., Christ’s Thorn. (1) Cratægus Pyracantha … Ches., from a local tradition that our Saviour’s crown of thorns was made from this plant.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, 351. *Christes wurte flowreth al bytimes about Christmas, in Januarie and almost vntill March.
¶ The existing derivatives of Christ (CHRISTENDOM, CHRISTIAN, etc.) are now always written with a capital, except CHRISTEN v.
