Crossword clues for superstition
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Superstition \Su`per*sti"tion\, n. [F. superstition, L. superstitio, originally, a standing still over or by a thing; hence, amazement, wonder, dread, especially of the divine or supernatural, fr. superstare to stand over; super over + stare to stand. See Super-, and Stand.]
An excessive reverence for, or fear of, that which is unknown or mysterious.
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An ignorant or irrational worship of the Supreme Deity; excessive exactness or rigor in religious opinions or practice; extreme and unnecessary scruples in the observance of religious rites not commanded, or of points of minor importance; also, a rite or practice proceeding from excess of sculptures in religion.
And the truth With superstitions and traditions taint.
--Milton. -
The worship of a false god or gods; false religion; religious veneration for objects.
[The accusers] had certain questions against him of their own superstition.
--Acts xxv. 19. Belief in the direct agency of superior powers in certain extraordinary or singular events, or in magic, omens, prognostics, or the like.
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Excessive nicety; scrupulous exactness.
Syn: Fanaticism.
Usage: Superstition, Fanaticism. Superstition springs from religious feeling misdirected or unenlightened. Fanaticism arises from this same feeling in a state of high-wrought and self-confident excitement. The former leads in some cases to excessive rigor in religious opinions or practice; in others, to unfounded belief in extraordinary events or in charms, omens, and prognostics, hence producing weak fears, or excessive scrupulosity as to outward observances. The latter gives rise to an utter disregard of reason under the false assumption of enjoying a guidance directly inspired. Fanaticism has a secondary sense as applied to politics, etc., which corresponds to the primary.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
early 13c., "false religious belief; irrational faith in supernatural powers," from Latin superstitionem (nominative superstitio) "prophecy, soothsaying; dread of the supernatural, excessive fear of the gods, religious belief based on fear or ignorance and considered incompatible with truth or reason," literally "a standing over," noun of action from past participle stem of superstare "stand on or over; survive," from super "above" (see super-) + stare "to stand," from PIE root *sta- "to stand" (see stet). There are many theories to explain the Latin sense development, but none has yet been generally accepted. Originally in English especially of religion; sense of "unreasonable notion" is from 1794.
Wiktionary
n. A belief, not based on human reason or scientific knowledge, that future events may be influenced by one's behaviour in some magical or mystical way.
WordNet
n. an irrational belief arising from ignorance or fear [syn: superstitious notion]
Wikipedia
Superstition is the 10th studio album by English rock band Siouxsie and the Banshees, released in 1991. The first single, " Kiss Them for Me", gave the band its first top 40 Billboard Hot 100 hit in the United States, peaking at No. 23, with the album peaking at No. 65 on the Billboard 200 chart. The band widened their musical influences with the arrival of Indian musician Talvin Singh, who played tablas on the songs "Kiss Them for Me" and "Silver Waterfalls".
This album was reissued in a remastered version with bonus tracks in October 2014.
Superstition is a 1920 American short Western film directed by Edward Laemmle for the Universal Film Mfg. Co. and featuring Hoot Gibson.
Superstition is an album by organist Shirley Scott recorded in 1973 and released on the Cadet label.
Superstition is the sixth full-length studio album by Canadian electronic rock band The Birthday Massacre, released on November 11, 2014 through Metropolis Records. The album was funded through PledgeMusic. To promote the album, a subsequent North America tour and music video for "Beyond" followed the album's release.
Superstition (also known as The Witch) is a 1982 Canadian-American horror film directed by James W. Roberson and starring James Houghton, Albert Salmi, and Lynn Carlin. The plot follows a family who move into a house that was once the site of a witch's execution.
"Superstition" is a popular song composed, produced, arranged, and performed by Stevie Wonder for Motown Records in 1972. It was the lead single for Wonder's Talking Book album, and released in many countries. It reached number one in the U.S., and number one on the soul singles chart. The song was Wonder's first number-one single since the live version of " Fingertips Pt. 2" topped the Billboard Hot 100 in 1963. Overseas, it peaked at number eleven in the UK during February 1973. In November 2004, Rolling Stone ranked the song at No. 74 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. The song's lyrics are chiefly concerned with superstitions, mentioning several popular superstitious fables throughout the song, and deal with the negative effects superstitious beliefs can bring.
Superstition is a belief, not based on human reason or scientific knowledge, that future events may be influenced by one's behaviour in some magical or mystical way.
Superstition may also refer to:
- "Superstition" (song), a 1972 song by Stevie Wonder, later covered by Stevie Ray Vaughan
- Superstition (Siouxsie and the Banshees album), 1991
- Superstition (Shirley Scott album), 1973
- Superstition (The Birthday Massacre album), 2014
- Superstition Freeway, the part of U.S. Route 60 through Metropolitan Phoenix
- Superstition Mountains, a range of mountains east of Phoenix, Arizona
- "Superstitious" (song), a 1988 song by Europe
- " I Ain't Superstitious", a 1962 song by Willie Dixon
- "Superstition", a 2003 song by Raven-Symoné
- Superstitious (novel), a 1995 novel by R. L. Stine
- Superstition (1920 film), a 1920 film starring Hoot Gibson
- Superstition (1982 film), a 1982 horror film
Superstition is the belief in supernatural causality—that one event causes another without any natural process linking the two events—such as astrology and certain aspects linked to religion, like omens, witchcraft, and prophecies, that contradict natural science.
The word superstition is generally used to refer to the religion not practiced by the majority of a given societysuch as Christianity in Western cultureregardless of whether the prevailing religion contains superstitions. It is also commonly applied to beliefs and practices surrounding luck, prophecy, and certain spiritual beings, particularly the belief that future events can be foretold by specific (apparently) unrelated prior events.
The Tragedy of Superstition; or, the Fanatic Father, is a straight play by James Nelson Barker set in a Puritan village in Colonial America, specifically in " New England, about the year 1675." Although feeling much like a melodrama, Barker himself identifies the play as a tragedy in the title. The play revolves around the hero Charles and the villain Reverend Ravensworth. Ravensworth persecutes Charles and his mother on the claims that they are practicing magic. Unlike a traditional melodrama, in which poetic justice prevails, Charles and his mother are both executed at the end of the play, and Ravensworth's daughter dies of grief because of the love she had for Charles.
The play critiques tyrannous styles of government, especially ones which use fear of a supposed "Other" to consolidate and maintain power. Superstition is also a highly patriotic play, which held American ideals of the time as superior to those of the English. The tragedy was first performed on March 12, 1824 at the Chestnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia.
Usage examples of "superstition".
When despotism and superstition, twin-powers of evil and darkness, reigned everywhere and seemed invincible and immortal, it invented, to avoid persecution, the mysteries, that is to say, the allegory, the symbol, and the emblem, and transmitted its doctrines by the secret mode of initiation.
Warlike, secular, antimonarchist, they advocated a return to ancient Starbridge values and denounced the government of Argon Starbridge, which was sunk in bureaucracy and superstition.
But on these lands, and on the ruins of Pagan superstition, the Christians had frequently erected their own religious edifices: and as it was necessary to remove the church before the temple could be rebuilt, the justice and piety of the emperor were applauded by one party, while the other deplored and execrated his sacrilegious violence.
Catholics, are popular superstitions, envy, calumnies, backbiting, insinuations, and the like, which, being neither punished nor refuted, stir up suspicion of witchcraft.
Doctor said, with that shade of curiosity in his tone which a metaphysician would probably say is an index of a certain tendency to belief in the superstition to which the question refers.
Weak minds were seduced by the delusion of a superstition styled Methodism, raised upon the affectation of superior sanctity, and maintained by pretensions to divine illumination.
It is a bulwark against mysticism, against superstition, against religion misapplied to where it has no business being.
For this reason he has all his life remained free from all superstition and has been completely indifferent to dogmas and miracles, which to his mind imply not only a profound ignorance of science, but also a gross and complete miscomprehension of the divine Intelligence.
Grimm explains the principle of this test by tracing it to an old heathen superstition that the holy element, the pure stream, would receive no misdoer within it.
With head and hearts perverted by monkish superstition and Spanish tyranny, yet set on fire by the French Revolution, what did they know of liberty!
The idea would have given him a chuckle in spite of his scholarly delvings into feminine psychology and those brilliant studies in the parallelisms of primitive superstition and modem neurosis that had already won him a certain professional fame.
That Papistry and superstition may be utterly suppressed, according to the intention of the Acts of Parliament, repeated in the 5th Act, Parl.
Gordian went out to meet him, and the three princes made their entry into the capital, attended by the ambassadors of almost all the cities of Italy, saluted with the splendid offerings of gratitude and superstition, and received with the unfeigned acclamations of the senate and people, who persuaded themselves that a golden age would succeed to an age of iron.
But then one should not forget that van Leeuwenhoek also looked at human semen, observed sperm, and described each individual spermatozoon as a perfectly formed, minuscule mannikin, thus reinforcing a long-held preformationist superstition about human reproduction that took at least another century to outgrow.
The Priests of Brahma, professing a dark and bloody creed, brutalized by Superstition, united together against Buddhism, and with the aid of Despotism, exterminated its followers.