epitrachelion
/ˌɛpɪtɹɑˈkiliɔn/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English
20
Scrabble Score
13
Letters
5
Syllables
11
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The liturgical vestment worn by priests and bishops of the Eastern Orthodox Church as the symbol of their priesthood, corresponding to the Western stole.
Example Sentences
- "[A] little band of marchers displays Greek Orthodox outfits, the rhason and sticharion, the epitrachelion and the epimanikia, the sakkos, the epigonation, the zone, the omophorion; they brandish icons and enkolpia, dikerotikera and dikanikion."
- "The epitrachelion is the Orthodox equivalent of the stole, but it hangs straight instead of being crossed over the chest, as is the case with the stole in Western churches."
- "The colorful tassels of the visible ends of the hierarchs' epitrachelions suggest a late-fourteenth century date."
Etymology
Borrowed from Byzantine Greek ἐπιτραχήλιον (epitrakhḗlion), from Ancient Greek ἐπιτραχήλιος (epitrakhḗlios, “on the neck”) + -ιον (-ion, suffix forming diminutive nouns). ἐπιτραχήλιος (epitrakhḗlios) is from ἐπι- (epi-, “on, upon, on top of, covering”) (from Proto-Indo-European *h₁epi (“on; at; near”)) + τράχηλος (trákhēlos, “neck”) + -ῐος (-ĭos) (from Proto-Indo-European *-yós (suffix forming adjectives)).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˌɛpɪtɹɑˈkiliɔn/
- British English: /ˌɛpɪtɹəˈkiliɒn/