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Definition crusade

Etymology

From French croisade, introduced in English (in the French spelling) by 1575. The modern spelling emerges c. 1760,. Middle French croisade is introduced in the 15th century, based on Spanish cruzada (late 14th century) and Old Occitan crozada (early 13th century), both reflecting Medieval Latin cruci?ta, cruxiata, the feminine singular of the adjective cruci?tus used as an abstract noun.

Adjectival cruci?tus originally meant "tormented; crucified", but from the 12th century was also used for "marked with a cross; making the sign of the cross" and eventually "taking the cross" in the sense of "going on a crusade".

Old Occitan crozada is used in the sense "[the Albigensian] crusade" in the Song of the Albigensian crusade, written c. 1213. From vernacular usage, Middle Latin cruci?ta also comes to be used in the sense "crusade" from about 1270.

Noun

crusade (plural crusades)

1. (historical) Any of the military expeditions undertaken by the Christians of Europe in the 11th to 13th centuries to reconquer the Levant from the Muslims.
2. Any war instigated and blessed by the Church for alleged religious ends. Especially, papal sanctioned military campaigns against infidels or heretics.
3. (figuratively) A grand concerted effort toward some purportedly worthy cause.
4. (politics, Protestantism, dated) A mass gathering in a political campaign or during a religious revival effort.
5. (archaic) A Portuguese coin; a crusado.

Verb

crusade (third-person singular simple present crusades, present participle crusading, simple past and past participle crusaded)

1. (intransitive) To go on a military crusade.
2. (intransitive) To make a grand concerted effort toward some purportedly worthy cause.

Results 371 Words with the letters CRUSADE

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