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.