noli me tangere
/ˌnəʊlɪ mɪ ˈtæn(d)ʒəɹi/
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.38 in modern English
Meaning
noun
A picture depicting Jesus appearing to Mary Magdalene shortly after his resurrection from the dead (see the etymology).
noun
Someone (such as a disagreeable person) or something (such as a painful experience or taboo topic) to be avoided or not interfered with.
noun
Any of various plants with fruits or seed capsules that, when ripe, burst open and discharge their seeds when touched, or with leaves that fold and droop when touched.
noun
Any of various plants with fruits or seed capsules that, when ripe, burst open and discharge their seeds when touched, or with leaves that fold and droop when touched.
noun
Any of various plants with fruits or seed capsules that, when ripe, burst open and discharge their seeds when touched, or with leaves that fold and droop when touched.
noun
Any of various plants with fruits or seed capsules that, when ripe, burst open and discharge their seeds when touched, or with leaves that fold and droop when touched.
Archaic
noun
Any of various diseases causing ulcers of the skin and underlying tissues, especially of the face; many of these diseases are now thought to be due to basal cell carcinoma or squamous cell carcinoma.
Obsolete
Example Sentences
- "In the rest of the private lodgings contiguous to this, are divers of the best pictures of the greate masters, Raphael, Titian, &c. and, in my esteeme, above all, the Noli me tangere of our blessed Saviour to Mary Magdalen after his Resurrection, of Hans Holbein [the Younger], than which I never saw so much reverence and kind of heavenly astonishment express'd in a picture."
- "In a compartment over the communion-table is an estimable picture; a noli me tangere, by [Anton Raphael] Mengs, who painted it at Rome, and parted with it to the college for three hundred guineas."
- "Half of the other pictures are Magdalens, Flights into Egypt, Crucifixions, Depositions from the Cross, Pietas, Noli-me-tangeres, or the Sacrifice of Abraham, or martyrdoms of saints, originally painted as altar-pieces, or for the shrines of chapels, and wofully lacking the accompaniments which the artist had in view."
- "He studied a tapestry on one wall of a noli me tangere wrought by a craftsman whose signature was illegible."
- "The Porcupine is a ſmall thing not much unlike a Hedgehog; ſomething bigger, vvho ſtands upon his guard and proclaimes a Noli me tangere, to man and beaſt, that ſhall approach too neare him, darting his quills into their legges, and hides."
- "These difficulties, that are in Scripture, which indeed are not a few,—are not a ‘noli me tangere,’ to drive us from the study of the Scriptures, as the inference would be made,—but they are of another kind of aim and tendency."
Etymology
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- British English: /ˌnəʊlɪ mɪ ˈtæn(d)ʒəɹi/