a. Also 6 lai-, laycall. [f. as prec. + -AL.] = prec. Also occas., non-professional.
[1290. Rolls of Parlt., I. 60/2. Exactionibus … per quas plus extorquent de populo quam omnes Cur’ laycales.]
1563–87. Foxe, A. & M. (1596), 1050/1. The distinction used to be made between the priestes communion and the laicall communion.
1596. Bell, Surv. Popery, III. x. 408. The faithful laycall people.
1656. in Blount, Glossogr.
1704. Nelson, Fest. & Fasts, x. (1739), 603. The Canon Law … declares that every Laical Person who … shall take a Bribe for a Presentation … shall be excommunicated.
1818. Lady Morgan, Autobiog. (1859), 106. This religious house … is almost laical.
1822–34. Good’s Study Med. (ed. 4), I. 557. No complaint is so common as fever; none in which mankind, whether professional or laical, are so little likely to be mistaken.
1864. Lowell, Fireside Trav., 175. A phrase commonly indicated in laical literature by the same sign which serves for Doctorate in Divinity.
1886. Athenæum, 17 July, 79/2. The special circumstances of Dulwich make its headmastership one more laical … than that of other leading schools.
absol. 1605. Camden, Rem., Wise Sp., 180. In all ages the Clericall will flatter, as well [as] the Laicall.
Hence Laicality, the state or condition of a layman; Laically adv., in a laical manner; after the manner of a layman.
In mod. Dicts.
