Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Epistle
E-pis′tle
,Noun.
[OE.
epistle
, epistel
, AS. epistol
, pistol
, L. epistola
, fr. Gr. [GREEK] anything sent by a messenger, message, letter, fr. [GREEK] to send to, tell by letter or message; ἐπί
upon, to + [GREEK] to dispatch, send; cf. OF. epistle
, epistre
, F. épître
. See Stall
.] 1.
A writing directed or sent to a person or persons; a written communication; a letter; – applied usually to formal, didactic, or elegant letters.
A madman’s
epistles
are no gospels. Shakespeare
2.
(Eccl.)
One of the letters in the New Testament which were addressed to their Christian brethren by Apostles.
Epistle side
, the right side of an altar or church to a person looking from the nave toward the chancel.
One sees the pulpit on the
epistle side
. R. Browning.
E-pis′tle
,Verb.
T.
To write; to communicate in a letter or by writing.
[Obs.]
Milton.
Webster 1828 Edition
Epistle
EPIS'TLE
,Noun.
A writing, directed or sent, communicating intelligence to a distant person; a letter; a letter missive. It is rarely used in familiar conversation or writings, but chiefly in solemn or formal transactions. It is used particularly in speaking of the letters of the Apostles, as the epistles of Paul; and of other letters written by the ancients, as the epistles of Pliny or of Cicero.
Definition 2024
Epistle
epistle
epistle
See also: Epistle
English
Noun
epistle (plural epistles)
- A letter, or a literary composition in the form of a letter.
- 1748 — David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section III, § 5.
- he may be hurried from this plan by the vehemence of thought, as in an ode, or drop it carlessly, as in an epistle or essay
- 1748 — David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section III, § 5.
- (Christianity) One of the letters included as a book of the New Testament.
- 1956 — Werner Keller (translated by William Neil), The Bible as History, revised English edition, Chapter 41, page 358
- Even last century scholars had begun to search for the cities in Asia Minor whose names have become so familiar to the Chistian world through the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles of St. Paul.
- 1956 — Werner Keller (translated by William Neil), The Bible as History, revised English edition, Chapter 41, page 358
Derived terms
Related terms
- epistolarian
- epistolary
- epistolation
- epistolatry
- epistolean
- epistolic
- epistolical
- epistolize
- epistolist
- epistolographer
- epistolographic
- epistolographist
- epistolography
Translations
a letter
book of the New Testament
Verb
epistle (third-person singular simple present epistles, present participle epistling, simple past and past participle epistled)
- (obsolete) To write; to communicate in a letter or by writing.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Milton to this entry?)