novitiaten.
/nəˈvɪʃɪət/, U.S. /noʊˈvɪʃət/ 1.
a. A novice in a religious order.
ΘΚΠ
society > faith > worship > sacrament > order > monastic profession > [noun] > novice
monk-childOE
nun-noviceOE
novicec1390
novitiate1517
probationer1629
1517–18 in J. Nichols Illustr. Manners & Expences Antient Times (1797) 287 Item, to 8 of the brethren, priests, and to 2 noviciates, for kepying of the anniversary William Clerke; to every priest, 4d.; and every noviciate, 2d.
1655 T. Fuller Church-hist. Brit. ix. 92 These Colledges..dispatch their ripe Noviciats for England.
1679 M. Prance Addit. Narr. 40 The Ecclesiasticks..yearly receive young Students or Novitiates from hence.
1711 J. Addison Spectator No. 164. ¶7 The Abbess had been informed..of all things that had passed between her Noviciate and Father Francis.
1762 T. Smollett Adventures Sir Launcelot Greaves I. vi. 140 Would I had Tom Laverick here, (replied our novitiate) he would sing you anthems like a sea-mew.
1775 Bp. J. Jebb Corr. (1894) 24 A preparatory sermon addressed entirely to the novitiate.
1817 J. Mill Hist. Brit. India I. ii. ii. 114 The noviciates to the sacerdotal office are commanded to find their subsistence by begging.
1864 E. R. Charles Chrons. of Schönberg Family vi. 93 I have been a month in the monastery. Yesterday my first probation was over, and I was invested with the white garments of the novitiate.
1896 Cent. Mag. Nov. 134/2 The ceremony had progressed to the point where the novitiate prostrates herself prone upon her face. There, in white, lay my child, a sacrifice.
1946 Speculum 21 200 William has learned patience to his sorrow, and he has also learned..that the life of a novitiate and chorister is no picnic.
1951 Jrnl. Politics 13 171 There are priests..who assure the young novitiate that his growing doubts are a mental illusion.
1985 M. Bogin tr. I. Allende House of Spirits v. 122 They shave the heads of the novitiates, poor girls.
b. gen. A beginner, a novice; a person who is new to something.
ΘΚΠ
society > education > learning > learner > [noun] > novice or beginner
younglingOE
new-comeOE
novice1340
ginner?c1400
beginner1470
apprentice1489
prentice1489
infant1526
freshmana1557
intrant1560
enterer1565
puny?1570
weakling1575
new comeling1587
novist1587
incipient1589
puisne1592
abecedary1596
neophyte1600
abecedarian1603
bachelor1604
novelist?1608
alphabetary1611
breeching boy1611
tiro1611
alphabetarian1614
principiant1619
unexperienced1622
velvet head1631
undergraduatea1659
young stager1664
greenhorn1672
battledore boy1693
youngster1706
tironist1716
novitiatea1734
recruit1749
griffin1793
initiate1811
Johnny Newcome1815
Johnny Raw1823
griff1829
plebe1833
Johnny-come-lately1839
new chum1851
blanc-bec1853
fledgling1856
rookie1868
elementarian1876
tenderfoot1881
shorthorn1888
new kid1894
cheechako1897
ring-neck1898
Johnny1901
rook1902
fresh meat1908
malihini1914
initiand1915
stooge1930
intakea1943
cub1966
a1734 R. North Examen (1740) i. ii. §12. 36 Scarce enough..for a Novitiate as he was, to acquire an ordinary Prattique of the cursory Part of Business.
1793 J. Williams Calm Exam. 60 Political Novitiates rush into the Chamber of the third Estate.
1827 P. Cunningham Two Years New S. Wales II. xxvii. 186 Such indeed as may frequently induce the desponding noviciate..to lament the hour in which he became a tiller of our untamed soils.
1849 Escape from Toil 13/1 The sincere noviciate..setting candidly and resolutely to the work will never give up.
1861 G. Meredith Evan Harrington III. ix. 150 The novitiate must sit no less than six hours a-day with his legs crossed and doubled under him, cheerfully plying needle and thread.
1930 Jrnl. Polit. Econ. 38 304 The novitiate to college-teaching is not likely to be a very effective teacher. He is quite likely to know his thesis subject well, the courses he essays to teach less well, and teaching as an art not at all.
1974 Daily Tel. 11 Mar. 13/4 Noviciates to the absorbing game of wine..will have few samples and much pleasure in drinking it now.
1992 Times 29 Oct. 37/3 The novitiate laboured for two weeks before handing in his draft.
2.
a. The probationary period undertaken by a novice before taking religious vows.
ΘΚΠ
society > faith > worship > sacrament > order > monastic profession > [noun] > novice > period of being
novicery1440
noviceship1532
probation1597
novitiate1602
novitiateship1666
probationship1822
1602 W. Watson Decacordon Ten Quodlibeticall Questions 90 He sent him to Antwerpe to haue his Nouitiat by the Prouincial there.
1669 A. Woodhead tr. Life St. Teresa (1671) ii. vii. 50 Let them not admit them to make profession, if in the year of their Noviciate they find not [etc.].
1726 J. Barker Lining of Patch-work Screen 76 Her Parents consented to her Return into the Convent. Here she performed all the Duties of her Novitiate with perfect Obedience.
1760 E. Burke Ess. Abridgm. Eng. Hist. 14 None were admitted into this order, but after a long and laborious noviciate.
1794 S. Rowson Mentoria (new ed.) I. iv. 64 Eight months of my novitiate is past... Am I not going to renounce the world and all its pleasures?
1819 W. Scott Ivanhoe III. v. 126 The aspirants after this holy Order wore during their novitiate the cast-off garments of the knights.
1847 C. Brontë Jane Eyre II. vii. 186 Eliza actually took the veil, and is at this day superior of the convent where she passed the period of her novitiate.
1884 Ld. Tennyson Becket v. ii. 179 Breaking already from thy noviciate To plunge into this bitter world again.
1931 V. Sackville-West All Passion Spent ii. 150 A nun in her novitiate was not more vigilant than she.
1949 Speculum 24 229 An act of 1263 shows a nephew of the provost of the cathedral chapter serving his novitiate in the order.
1990 Dalai Lama XIV Freedom in Exile ii. 18 Soon after I began my novitiate, Reting Rinpoché gave up the Regency.
b. In extended use: the state or time of being a novice or beginner in anything; a period of initiation, apprenticeship, or probation.
ΘΚΠ
society > education > learning > learner > [noun] > novice or beginner > condition of
novitiate1610
novicehood1748
tironism1832
neophytism1845
1610 J. Donne Pseudo-martyr i. 6 But those..God doth ordinarily bring vp in a nouitiate, and Apprentisage of worldly Crosses.
1694 R. South 12 Serm. II. 244 He must have pass'd his Tyrocinium, or Novitiate, in Sinning, before he can come to this.
1723 H. St. John Let. to Swift in A. Pope New Lett. (1737) 14 I know no Vows so solemn as those of Friendship, and therefore a pretty long noviciate of Acquaintance should..precede them.
1797 E. Burke Three Mem. French Affairs 47 After they have passed the novitiate, those who take any sort of lead are placed in very lucrative offices.
1822 T. De Quincey Confessions Eng. Opium-eater 81 The calamities of my noviciate in London had struck root.
1871 L. Stephen Playground of Europe ii. iv. 319 Fix yourself for the period of your noviciate at one of the great Alpine centres of interest.
1899 A. Jones Life & Work Thomas Dudley ii. 16 The page made a beginning in his service and training when he was between seven and eight years old; and during his novitiate of seven or eight years, he was the constant personal attendant of both his master and his mistress.
1937 D. M. Jones In Parenthesis iv. 70 Here they sat, his friends, serving their harsh novitiate.
1948 Amer. Hist. Rev. 54 85 For this task the historian frequently is not well trained. Too much attention during his novitiate is placed upon critical apparatus for testing the validity of the data.
1984 House & Garden Mar. 72/1 So often a new gardener becomes enthusiastic about something like a Buddleia, and in his novitiate..he is likely to overvalue them.
3. A place housing novices of a religious order during their period of probation; spec. a Jesuit college where novices are trained. Also in extended use.
ΘΚΠ
society > faith > artefacts > monastic property (general) > monastery or convent > parts of monastery > [noun] > noviciate
novicerya1425
novitiate1629
novitiate house1704
1629 L. Owen Speculum Iesuiticum (new ed.) 48 Their house of approbation or Nouiciat.
1687 A. Lovell tr. J. de Thévenot Trav. into Levant i. 3 The Novitiate of the Jesuites stands upon a Hill higher than any place of the Town.
1704 tr. A. de Ovalle Of Kingdom of Chile in A. Churchill & J. Churchill Coll. Voy. III. 19/1 The Jesuites have also a Novitiate.
1762 Ann. Reg. 1761 i. 172 In the year 1710, there were [in France]..612 jesuits colleges,..59 noviciates.
1772 J. Adams tr. A. de Ulloa Voy. S. Amer. (ed. 3) I. 229 The deserts of the mountains..were the noviciates in which we were inured to the severe life we led.
1826 R. Southey Vindiciæ Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ 449 When St. Francisco.., as Commissary for the Order in Spain, visited a noviciate.
1884 A. T. de Vere Hundred Years in Poet. Wks. V. 122 Where are its cloisters? Where the felon sleeps! Where its novitiate? Where the last wolf died!
1888 ‘Bernard’ From World to Cloister ii The novitiate was situated on the third floor at the top of the house.
1909 K. Tynan Abbot's Bees in Lauds 37 The windows of the novitiate Are open ever early and late; And hear the voices like the hum The bees make in the honeycomb!
1932 C. P. Curran in F. J. Sheed Irish Way 269 In this spirit she worked for ten years in the Mother-house and novitiate.
1992 Newfoundland Lifestyle Winter 42/1 Brother Murphy was appointed consultor of the North American Province, and supervisor/principal at St. Joseph's Junior Novitiate in New York.
Compounds
C1. General attributive, as novitiate chapel, novitiate house, novitiate year, etc.
ΘΚΠ
society > faith > artefacts > monastic property (general) > monastery or convent > parts of monastery > [noun] > noviciate
novicerya1425
novitiate1629
novitiate house1704
1704 tr. A. de Ovalle Of Kingdom of Chile in A. Churchill & J. Churchill Coll. Voy. III. 6/2 The Founder of our Novitiat-House.
1756 tr. J. G. Keyssler Trav. I. 464 The tomb..is in the Novitiate chapel of the convent.
1789 Trifler No. 32. 408 The whole family, in which I passed my noviciate year.
1799 R. B. Sheridan Pizarro v. ii The noviciate habit which you first beheld her in.
1840 Penny Cycl. XVI. 355/2 Persons who apply to enter the noviciate state.
1869 Daily News 6 Feb. The vow of poverty, as explained by the Noviciate Guide.
1893 Science 20 Jan. 29/2 All departments of investigation should pass through this novitiate or formative stage and the world of science must look with lenience upon the mistakes of the period.
1929 Sci. Monthly Sept. 217 His novitiate year was spent in Stará Voda near the Silesian border.
1997 Representations Spring 88 [The] statue Stanislas Kostka, completed in 1703 for the cult rooms of the same saint in the Jesuit novitiate house.
C2. Appositive, as novitiate candidate, novitiate thinker, etc.
ΚΠ
1775 J. Adair Hist. Amer. Indians 6 Holding this Indian razor between their fore-finger and thumb, they deplume themselves, after the manner of the Jewish novitiate priests.
1788 N. Tucker tr. E. Swedenborg Wisdom of Angels iv. §341. 311 When they are opened a little, as is the Case when novitiate Devils enter.
1802 Lamb in Athenæum (1888) 4 Aug. 171/3 Now that..Mr. Cooke is no longer a novitiate candidate for public favour.
1885 H. O. Forbes Naturalist's Wanderings Eastern Archipel. 468 The novitiate gold-washer..accompanies the Dato to the river.
1898 Mind 7 556 It contradicts the internal category of self-activity, and the novitiate thinker sets the latter aside, supposing that it is illusory.
1935 Amer. Mercury Feb. 253/1 There have been dude exploring parties on which the novitiate traveler pays to go with a leader.
1982 W. L. Heat Moon Blue Highways ii. xvii. 82 At the table, talk turned toward a Savannah visitor recuperating from a coronary bypass who had come to see his novitiate son.
Derivatives
noˈvitiateship n.
ΘΚΠ
society > faith > worship > sacrament > order > monastic profession > [noun] > novice > period of being
novicery1440
noviceship1532
probation1597
novitiate1602
novitiateship1666
probationship1822
1666 G. Torriano Proverbial Phrases 181/1 in Piazza Universale Kitlings being blind nine daies, the embleme of a Novitiatship.
1835 E. Bulwer-Lytton New Phædo iii, in Student II. 171 The habit of thinking, by degrees, cures the faults of its noviciateship.
1993 Sunday Times (Nexis) 15 Aug. ‘When one gay man recently offered himself to the novitiateship we..did not encourage him,’ said Abbot Finbar.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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