friar
pronunciation
How to pronounce friar in British English:
UK [ˈfraɪə(r)]
How to pronounce friar in American English:
US [ˈfraɪɚ]
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- Noun:
- a male member of a religious order that originally relied soley on alms
Word Origin
- friar
- friar: see fraternal
- friar (n.)
- late 13c., from Old French frere "brother, friar" (9c., Modern French frère), originally referring to the mendicant orders (Franciscans, Augustines, Dominicans, Carmelites), who reached England early 13c., from Latin frater "brother" (see brother).
Example
- 1. In 1517 a friar named tetzel was traveling through germany selling indulgences to help finance it .
- 2. By 1614 , a dominican friar named tommaso caccini preached openly against galileo , calling the copernican worldview heretical .
- 3. The face of a kneeling friar is barely glimpsed in a darkness that speaks of inner searching , of the long night of the soul .
- 4. Hufflepuff house is haunted by the fat friar , who was executed because senior churchmen grew suspicious of his ability to cure the pox merely by poking peasants with a stick , and his ill-advised habit of pulling rabbits out of the communion cup .