The Collaborative International Dictionary
Ophite \O"phite\, a. [Gr. 'ofi`ths, fr. 'o`fis a serpent.] Of or pertaining to a serpent. [Obs.]
Ophite \O"phite\, n. [L. ophites, Gr. 'ofi`ths (sc. ?), a kind of marble spotted like a serpent: cf. F. ophite.] (Min.) A greenish spotted porphyry, being a diabase whose pyroxene has been altered to uralite; -- first found in the Pyreness. So called from the colored spots which give it a mottled appearance. -- O*phi"ic, a.
Ophite \O"phite\, n. [L. Ophitae, pl. See Ophite, a.] (Eccl. Hist.) A mamber of a Gnostic serpent-worshiping sect of the second century.
Wiktionary
Etymology 1 n. (context geology English) Any of various rocks having snake-like markings, such as a mottled greenish porphyry. (from 16th c.) Etymology 2
a. (context rare English) serpent-like; ophidian. (from 19th c.)
Wikipedia
Ophite may refer to:
- Ophites, an ancient Gnostic sect in Syria and Egypt
- A name for verd antique, a type of serpentinite building stone
Usage examples of "ophite".
The head of Medusa was encircled by winged snakes, which, the head removed, left the Hierogram or Sacred Cypher of the Ophites or Serpent-worshippers.
Most wise Nymph, in my comming out of the subterraneall vast darksome place, as I passed on, I came to a goodlie bridge, and vppon the same, in a Porphyrite stone vppon the one side, and an Ophite vpon the other, I beheld engrauen certaine Hieragliphs, both which I did interprete, but I stoode doubtfull of certaine branches, that were tyed to the hornes of the scalpe of the Oxe, and the rather because they were in the Porphyrite stone, and not in the Ophit vpon the other side.
Opheltin is the place, and altar of the Ophite God above-mentioned: and Archemorus was undoubtedly the antient name of the neighbouring town, or city.
When she looked at a fountain of feathers or a glode of ophite, she only knew that it was one of the Elohim because she had already witnessed similar incarnations.
Origen cuts off his testicles and shows them, bleeding, to the fathers of the City of the Sun, and Hiram sneers filioque filioque while Constantine digs his greedy nails into the hollow eye sockets of Robert Fludd, death death to the Jews of the ghetto of Antioch, Dieu et mon droit, wave the Beauceant, lay on, down with the Ophites and the Borborites, the snakes.