Crossword clues for chrisom
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Chrisom \Chris"om\, n. [See Chrism.]
A white cloth, anointed with chrism, or a white mantle thrown over a child when baptized or christened. [Obs.]
A child which died within a month after its baptism; -- so called from the chrisom cloth which was used as a shroud for it. [Obs.]
--Blount.
Wiktionary
n. 1 (context obsolete English) A white cloth, anointed with chrism, or a white mantle thrown over a child when baptized or christened. 2 (context obsolete English) A child that died within a month after its baptism; so called from the chrisom cloth used as a shroud for it.
WordNet
n. a consecrated ointment consisting of a mixture of oil and balsam [syn: chrism, sacramental oil, holy oil]
Wikipedia
Anciently, a chrisom, or "chrisom-cloth," was the face-cloth, or piece of linen laid over a child's head when he or she was baptised or christened. Originally, the purpose of the chrisom-cloth was to keep the chrism, a consecrated oil, from accidentally rubbing off. With time, the word's meaning changed, to that of a white mantle thrown over the whole infant at the time of baptism. The term has come to refer to a child who died within a month after its baptism—so called for the chrisom cloth that was used as a shroud for it. Additionally, in London's Bills of Mortality, the term chrisom was used to refer to infants who died within a month after being born.
Usage examples of "chrisom".
She said no word thereon: as for her shrift, No Chrisom child could show a chart of thoughts More spotless than were hers.
Only three days later, when he took part in the magnificent christening ceremony that named the child Elizabeth, he saw that the iron cross was pinned to the inside of the chrisom, the robe in which the child would be wrapped when she was taken from the baptismal font.
And raising the corpse of the monkey in his jewelled hands, he laid it in her arms like a chrisom child, and bending the golden head, bowed.