Zionnoun
Meaning & use
- 1.Old English–A biblical name for: the city of Jerusalem; (hence) the land of Israel, esp. the biblical land of Israel regarded as the historical or divinely ordained homeland of the Jewish people (cf. Zionism n. 1).[After the name of one of the hills of Jerusalem on which the city of David was built, which became the centre of Jewish life and worship; see etymology.]
- OE
Ða halgan farað fram mihte to mihte, ealra goda God bið gesewen on Sion.
, Catholic Homilies: 2nd Series (Cambridge MS. Gg.3.28) xx. 191 - lOE
Ezechiel se wytega cwyðð, Eala þu Syon, þin king cumð & þe gestaðeleð.
St. James the Greater (Vespasian MS.) in R. D.-N. Warner, Early English Homilies (1917) 21 - (a1382)
That thou plaunte heuenus, and founde erthe, and sey to Sion [Latin Sion], My puple thou art.
Bible (Wycliffite, early version) (Douce MS. 369(1)) (1850) Isaiah li. 16[Composed a1382] - 1596
Such being the ancient league of God to Sion Necessiting her Peace to such temptation And yet withall protesting his protection Therto.
, Fig for Fortune 79 - a1677
Where great multitudes with store of Cattle, travailed towards Zion upon these solemn occasions, they had their difficulties and discouragements by the way.
, Sermon (1693) vol. IV. 1001 - 1819
These Gentiles, cruel and oppressive as they are, are in some sort dependent on the dispersed children of Zion, whom they despise and persecute.
, Ivanhoe vol. I. x. 204 - 1910
He pled with God to forget the sins of his people, to recall the bondage of Zion.
, Prester John xi. 112 - 1979
An old man used to sing the songs of Zion in the local markets, among the street traders.
, Backdoor to Heaven (1985) iv. 30 - 2009
The dream of the Jews to return to Zion is as old as the Diaspora.
, Balfour & Weizmann ii. 9
- 2.a.1530–In early use: an ideal or elevated spiritual state; (also) people who have attained such a state. Later: a society or place which embodies or represents a particular set of religious or spiritual principles or ideals. Cf. Israel n. A.2, Jerusalem n. 1.In later use often in Protestant or Nonconformist contexts, and associated esp. with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons). The term is now also used among Rastafarians, often in contrast with Babylon (see Babylon n.2 3).
- 1530
By Syon..ys vnderstonde sowles that are gyuen to contemplacyon, where in oure lorde Iesu chryste ys sewrely stabled.
Myroure of Oure Ladye (Fawkes) (1873) ii. 147 - 1530
As ye are doughtres of this bodely Syon, so ought ye to be doughtres of Syon gostly.
Myroure of Oure Ladye (Fawkes) (1873) 1st Prologue 2 - a1542
Make Syon, lord, accordyng to thy will, Inward Syon, the Syon of the ghost.
, Collected Poems (1969) 115 - 1611
Many, who wished not well vnto our Sion.
in Bible (King James) Epistle Ded. sig. A2 - 1779
Solid joys and lasting treasure None but Zion's children know.
in J. Newton & W. Cowper, Olney Hymns i. 72 - 1823
That same city of St. Andrews is the Zion of Scotland. Of old, the glad tidings of salvation were first heard there.
, Ringan Gilhaize vol. I. xx. 229 - 1991
When a conflict arises between the clarion calls of Mormondom and patriotism, Zion may prevail.
Wilson Quarterly Spring 42/2 - 1994
The early Rastafarians took heart in the dream of a black ‘Zion’ which would eclipse the white-dominated ‘Babylon’ which surrounded them.
, Street Style 76 - 2014
In the Afrofuturist imagination, outer space appears as an extra-terrestrial Zion, a sanctuary from the Armageddon on earth.
New York Review of Books 9 January 50/4
- 2.b.1828–Christian Church. Among some Nonconformist groups, esp. Baptists or Methodists: a place of worship or meeting house. Cf. bethel n., Ebenezer n. 2. Now historical.
- 1828
What think you of the tremendous increase of Zions, Zoars, Ebenezers, Bethels, and a multiplicity of other puritanical names, which now unhappily inundate this land?
, Quakers & Cock Robins 45 - 1857
They would..stick him up in some new Sion or Bethesda, and put the cathedral quite out of fashion.
, Barchester Towers vol. I. vii. 100 - 2006
Throughout Cardiff and the Valleys the Bethels, Carmels, Salems, Ebenezers and Zions have largely disappeared.
South Wales Echo (Nexis) 16 February 38