Quaker
/ˈkweɪkə
/noun
A member of the Religious Society of Friends, a Christian movement founded by George Fox circa 1650 and devoted to peaceful principles. Central to the Quakers’ belief is the doctrine of the ’Inner Light', or sense of Christ’s direct working in the soul. This has led them to reject both formal ministry and all set forms of worship: [as modifier]: a Quaker burial ground...
- Some of these groups, including the Baptists, Quakers, and Mennonites, developed their own forms of worship.
- She wrote to the Society of Friends or Quakers in Dublin asking for relief and describing the appalling conditions of the times.
- Their tendency to ‘quake’ with religious fervor led most to refer to Friends as Quakers.
Derivatives
Quakerish
- Lance is incredibly Quakerish in the way he lives.
- Then there are the people fired by pure Quakerish zeal.
- Don't address me as if I were a beauty; I am your plain Quakerish governess.
Quakerism
- We know that from the earliest decades of their enslaved sojourn in North America, some Africans converted to Christianity, e.g., Congregationalism, Anglicanism, and Quakerism.
- Michael Haykin has researched the serious damage caused by Quakerism.
- In his presentation on the Baptist sects, Weber explores the similarities between Calvinist doctrine and Quakerism.
Origin
From quake + -er1, perhaps alluding to George Fox's direction to his followers to ‘tremble at the name of the Lord’, or from fits supposedly experienced by worshippers when moved by the Spirit. Compare with shaker (sense 2).