Forms: 4–5 flamyn(e (erron. flaume), 4–7 flamin(e, 7 flammin(g, 7– flamen. [a. L. flāmen, of doubtful etymology; some modern scholars believe it to stand for *flādmen, f. flād-:—WAryan *bhlād- as in Goth. blôt-an, OE. blót-an to sacrifice; others regard it as standing for flāgmen, f. root flăg- to burn (from burning sacrifices).]
1. Rom. Antiq. A priest devoted to the service of a particular deity. † Flamin diall = L. flamen dialis, the flamen of Jupiter.
1533. Bellenden, Livy, I. (1822), 34. Yit he institute the sacrifice that pertenit to the flamin diall, with maist solemne cerimonyis.
1607. Shaks., Cor., II. i. 229.
| Seld-showne Flamins | |
| Doe presse among the popular Throngs, and puffe | |
| To winne a vulgar station. |
1644. Milton, Areop. (Arb.), 37. The Romans also for many ages train’d up only to a military roughnes, resembling most the Lacedæmonian guise, knew of learning little but what their twelve Tables, and the Pontifick College with their Augurs and Flamins taught them in Religion and Law.
1733. Pope, Ess. Man, III. 266.
| Then first the Flamen tasted living food; | |
| Next his grim idol smeared with human blood. |
1880. Muirhead Gaius 1. § 112. No person is elected to the office of one of the greater flamens, i.e. a flamen of Jupiter, Mars, or Quirinus, nor yet to be a rex sacrorum, unless born of farreate parents.
2. transf. Applied to other priests, etc.
c. 1400. Maundev. (1839), xii. 141. The Archiflamyn or the Flamyn, as oure Erchebisshopp or Bisshopp, whan he resceyvethe hem, seythe thus.
1650. Bulwer, Anthropomet., 210. Perchance the Egyptian Priests and other Flamines of the naturall Law, used Circumcision as a certaine signe of Piety.
1660. Hickeringill, Jamaica (1661), 79.
| The Muses and their Flamens they cashiere, | |
| Only Diana’s Troops are ’stablish’d here. |
1789. Burns, Lett. to Mrs. Dunlop, 13 Dec. Ye venerable sages and holy flamens, is there probability in your conjectures, truth in your stories, of another world beyond death; or are they all alike, baseless visions and fabricated fables?
1808. J. Barlow, The Columbiad, IV. 316.
| Let the poor guardless natives never feel | |
| The flamen’s fraud, the soldier’s fateful steel. |
3. The L. flamen and archiflamen (see ARCHFLAMEN) were used by Geoffrey of Monmouth to denote the two grades of alleged sacerdotal functionaries in heathen Britain, whose place was taken on the conversion of the island by bishops and archbishops. Hence pseudo-Hist. in Eng. writers.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. Wace (Rolls), 5756. Eyght & twenty flamins men tolde.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), II. 111. 28 bisshoppis icleped flamynes.
1480. Caxton, Descr. Brit., 25. To these archbisshops sees were subgette xxviij. bisshops and were called flamines.
1612. Drayton, Poly-olb., viii. 112.
| And her great Builders had, her Citties who did reare | |
| With Fanes vnto her Gods, and Flamins euery where. |
1652. Collinges, Caveat for Prof. (1653), 132. It holds as much for Bishops and Archbishops (instead of Flammins and Archflammins).
4. attrib., as flamen-priest.
a. 1533. Ld. Berners, Gold. Bk. M. Aurel., II. v. (1535), 114 b. Their gownes long lyke flamine prestes.
Hence Flamenship, the office of a flamen.
1600. Holland, Livy, XXVI. xxiii. (1609), 601. C. Claudius, the Arch-flamine of Jupiter, lost his Flamineship.
1610. Healey, St. Augustine, Of the Citie of God (1620), 71. Flamines, inheritors of the ancient Flamine-ship.
