Forms: 4–5 canoun, (5 canown), 6–8 cannon, 1, 3– canon. [Found in OE. as canon, a. L. canon rule, a. Gr. κανών rule. Early ME. had ca·non, prob. from OE., and canu·n, canou·n, a. OF. canun, canon, the Fr. descendant of the L. Senses 12–14 are of obscure origin; some or all may belong to CANNON, in F. spelt canon.]
1. A rule, law or decree of the Church; esp. a rule laid down by an ecclesiastical Council. The canon (collectively) = Canon law: see b.
The Canons, in Ch. of Engl. = ‘The Constitutions and Canons Ecclesiastical’ agreed upon by Convocation, and ratified by King James I. under the Great Seal in 1603.
c. 890. K. Ælfred, Bæda, IV. xxiv. (Bosw.). Canones boc.
a. 900. Laws of Ælfred, xxi. in Thorpe, II. 376 (Bosw). Ða canonas openlice beodaþ.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 26290. Als þe hali canon [v.r. -oun] vs sais þat scrift on sere-kin sines lais.
1451. Treaty w. Scotl., in Rymer, Foedera (1710), XI. 288. Maister Robert Dobbes, Doctor of Canon.
1489. Caxton, Faytes of A., IV. ix. 254. The canon deffendeth expresly al manere of bataille and violent hurt.
1597. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., V. lxi. § 2. A sacred canon of the sixth reverend synod.
1601. Shaks., All’s Well, I. i. 158. Selfe-loue, which is the most inhibited sinne in the Cannon.
1658. Bramhall, Consecr. Bps., vii. 171. The Papall Canons were never admitted for binding Lawes in England.
1827. Hallam, Const. Hist. (1876), I. vi. 303. A code of new canons had recently been established in convocation with the king’s assent.
1859. Jephson, Brittany, viii. 131. A priest is expressly forbidden by the canons … to enter a public inn.
b. Canon law (formerly law canon: cf. F. droit canon): ecclesiastical law, as laid down in decrees of the pope and statutes of councils. (See Gratian, Dist. iii. § 2.)
c. 1340. Cursor M., 26290 (Fairf.). Squa sais lagh Canoun þat is wise, þat shrift on mani synnis lise.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (1865), II. 117 (Mätz.). By dome of lawe canoun.
c. 1400. Apol. Loll., 73. Law canoun is callid law ordeynid of prelats of the kirk.
1494. Fabyan, VII. 526. They sent ye estudyauntys of ye lawe, canon & cyuyle.
1511. in W. H. Turner, Select. Rec. Oxford, 7. John Prynne, bachiller of Canon.
1552. Abp. Hamilton, Catech. (1884), 1. Doctours of Theologie and Canon law.
a. 1586. Answ. Cartwright, 3. The common Lawes are against the cannon Lawes in many hundreth poyntes.
1765. Blackstone, Comm., I. Introd. 82. The canon law is a body of Roman ecclesiastical law, relative to such matters as that church either has, or pretends to have, the proper jurisdiction over. This is compiled from the opinions of the antient Latin fathers, the decrees of general councils, the decretal epistles and bulles of the holy see.
1850. Mrs. Jameson, Leg. Monast. Ord. (1863), 331. Where he made himself master of civil and canon law.
2. gen. a. A law, rule, edict (other than ecclesiastical). b. A general rule, fundamental principle, aphorism or axiom governing the systematic or scientific treatment of a subject; e.g., canons of descent or inheritance; a logical, grammatical or metrical canon; canons of criticism, taste, art, etc.
1588. Fraunce, Lawiers Log., I. ii. 7 b. Such rules, maximaes, canons, axioms … or howsoever you tearme them.
1602. Shaks., Ham., I. ii. 132. Or that the Euerlasting had not fixt His Cannon ’gainst Selfe-slaughter. Ibid. (1607), Cor., I. x. 26. Against the hospitable Canon.
1628. Milton, Vacat. Exercise. Substance with his Canons; which Ens … explains.
1788. Reid, Aristotle’s Log., V. ii. 113. They have reduced the doctrine of the topics to certaine axioms or canons.
1806. Med. Jrnl., XV. 134. The canons of pathology.
1869. Rogers, Pref. Adam Smith’s W. N., I. 17. The indirect taxation of France violated every canon of financial prudence and equity.
1874. Sayce, Compar. Philol. i. 57. The canons of taste and polite literature.
1879. Farrar, St. Paul, I. 613. We may assume it as a canon of ordinary criticism that a writer intends to be understood.
c. A standard of judgment or authority; a test, criterion, means of discrimination.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 497. Moreouer, he made that which workmen call Canon, that is to say, one absolute piece of worke, from whence artificers do fetch their draughts, simetries, and proportions.
1651. Hobbes, Govt. & Soc., xvii. § 16. 313. The sacred Scripture is … the Canon and Rule of all Evangelicall Doctrine.
1869. Goulburn, Purs. Holiness, vii. 65. This Lord’s Prayer, what a canon does it supply for testing and correcting our spiritual state.
1874. W. Wallace, Hegel’s Logic, § 52. 93. [Reason] is a canon, not an organon of truth, and can furnish only a criticism of knowledge.
† 3. Math. A general rule, formula, table; esp. a table of sines, tangents, etc. Obs.
c. 1391. Chaucer, Astrol., II. § 32. Lok how many howres thilke coniunccion is fro the Midday of the day precedent, as shewith by the canoun of thi kalender.
1594. Blundevil, Exerc., II. (ed. 7), 130. If you shall not finde in the Canon, the Sine which by your calculation is found.
1656. trans. Hobbes’ Elem. Philos. (1839), 292. The straight line BV … if computed by the canon of signs.
1706. Phillips, In Mathematicks, Cannon is an infallible Rule to resolve all things of the same Nature with the present Inquiry.
1751. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Canon, Natural Canon of Triangles is a table of sines, tangents, and secants together … Artificial Canon of Triangles is a table wherein the logarithms of sines and tangents are laid down.
1798. Hutton, Course Math. (1807), II. 3. A Trigonometrical Canon, is a table.
4. The collection or list of books of the Bible accepted by the Christian Church as genuine and inspired. Also transf. Any set of sacred books.
1382. Wyclif, Apoc., Prol. In the bigynnyng of canon, that is, of the bok of Genesis.
1591. T. Norton, Calvin’s Inst., I. 13 b. What reuerence is due to the Scripture, and what bookes are to be reckened in the canon therof.
1641. J. Jackson, True Evang. T., II. 116. S. Andrew the Apostle … added nothing to the Canon of Scripture.
1870. Max Müller, Sc. Relig. (1873), 29. The process by which a canon of sacred books is called into existence.
1882. Farrar, Early Chr., I. 98. The Epistle to the Hebrews is not a work of St. Paul, but it is pre-eminently worthy of its honoured place in the Canon.
† 5. A canonical epistle. See CANONICAL 3.
1483. Caxton, Gold. Leg., 25/3. Saynt John that saith in his canone, We have [etc.].
1502. Ord. Crysten Men, II. i. (W. de W., 1506), 84. Wherfore sayth well saynt Iames in his canon.
6. The portion of the Mass included between the Preface and the Pater, and containing the words of consecration.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 21190. Þe first mess þat sent petre sang, Was þar þan na canon lang Bot pater-noster in þaa dais, Na langer canon was, it sais.
1395. Purvey, Remonstr. (1851), 42. After the sacringe, in the canoun of the masse.
a. 1450. Knt. de la Tour (1868), 40. Whan he was in the canoun of hys masse, [etc.].
1532. More, Confut. Tindale, Wks. 490/2. Luter himself casting away the holy canon of ye masse.
1656. Bp. Hall, Tracts (1677), 43. It was the farther solemnizing and beautifying that holy action which brought the Canon in.
1781. Gibbon, Decl. & F., II. xlv. 695. He officiated in the canon of the mass.
1868. Hook, Lives Abps., II. II. iii. 284, note. The canon or rule was the part of the service containing the actual consecration.
7. Mus. A species of musical composition in which the different parts take up the same subject one after another, either at the same or at a different pitch, in strict imitation.
A passage in Burney’s Hist. Music (1781), 480 suggests as an earlier meaning: ‘The rule by which a composition (in canon-form), which is only partially indicated in the score, can be read out by the performers in full.’ Cf. quot. 1609.
1597. Morley, Introd. Mus., 104. Of how manie parts the Canon is, so manie Cliefes do they set at the beginning of the verse.
1609. Douland, Ornith. Microl., 48. A Canon therefore is an imaginarie rule, drawing that part of the Song which is not set downe out of that part, which is set downe. Or it is a Rule, which doth wittily discouer the secret of a Song.
1795. Mason, Ch. Mus., i. 54. Such Organists, as were Masters of Canon, Fugue, and Counterpoint.
1869. Ouseley, Counterp., xxiii. § 13. The closest stretto should be reserved for the end … especially if it be introduced in canon.
b. A long hymn, used in the Eastern Church, consisting of eight odes, each of many stanzas.
1862. Q. Rev., April, 338. If we might venture … to name the characteristics of these canons, we should say richness and repose, and a continuous thread of Holy Scripture … woven into them.
8. a. ‘In old Records, a Prestation, Pension, or Customary payment upon some religious Account’ (Phillips, 1706). From Roman Law.
1683. Cave, Ecclesiastici, Introd. p. li. He restor’d the Corn-Canon, (as they call’d it) the yearly Allowance of Corn, which Constantine the Great had settled upon the Church.
1726. Ayliffe, Parerg., 139. Which Allowance was, by the ancient Lawyers, called a Canon, and not a Prebend, as now it is.
1847–79. Halliwell, Canon, a portion of a deceased man’s goods exacted by the priest.
b. A quit-rent. [cf. Littré, Canon 10.]
1643. Prynne, Power Parl., App. 164. Therefore to sustaine the burthens of Peace, the demesne was instituted, (which among the Lawyers is called Canon).
1774. Bp. Hallifax, Anal. Rom. Law (1795), 69. On condition that the Tenant shall improve the Lands, and pay a yearly Canon or Quit-Rent to the Proprietor.
9. A chief epoch or era, serving to date from (Gr. κανὼν χρονικός); a basis for chronology. Cf. canon monument in 15.
1833. Cruse, Eusebius, VI. xxii. 242. A certain canon comprising a period of sixteen years.
1876. Birch, Monum. Hist. Egypt, 14. The Turin papyrus, the canon of history, a list of all the kings [etc.].
b. Paschal Canon: the rule for finding Easter, to which was often appended a table of the dates of Easter and the feasts varying with it for a series of years.
1727–51. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Canon, Paschal Canon, a table of the moveable feasts, shewing the day of Easter, and the other feasts depending on it, for a cycle of nineteen years.
10. a. (See quot.)
1727–51. Chambers, Cycl., Canon, in monastic orders, a book wherein the religious of every convent have a fair transcript of the rules of their order, frequently read among them as their local statutes.
b. ‘The list of saints acknowledged and canonized by the Church’ (Chambers, Cycl., 1727–51).
11. Printing. A size of type-body equal to 4-line Pica; the largest size of type-body that has a specific name.
So called perhaps as being that used for printing the canon of the Mass; but Tory is said by Reed (op. cit. 36) to have used the term Canon for letter cut according to rule—lettres de forme—as distinguished from lettres bastardes.
1683. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., French Canon 171/2 [types] to a foot.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. iii. 119/2. Canon, the great Canon is the name of the largest Letter for Printing that is used in England.
1721. Bailey, Canon, (with Printers) a large sort of Printing Letter.
1887. T. B. Reed, O. Eng. Lett. Foundries, 36. The Canon of the Mass was … printed in a large letter, and it is generally supposed that this size of letter being ordinarily employed in the large Missals, the type-body took its name accordingly; a supposition which is strengthened by its German name of Missal.
12. (See quot.)
1696. Phillips, Canon … a Surgeon’s Instrument, made use of for the sewing up of Wounds.
1721. in Bailey.
1755. in Johnson; and in mod. Dicts. (Not in Syd. Soc. Lex.)
13. (See quot.)
1847–78. Halliwell, Canons, the first feathers of a hawk after she has mewed. [Perh. the same as CANNON: cf. Sp. cañon a quill.]
14. A metal loop or ‘ear’ at the top of a bell, by which it is hung. Also written CANNON (sb.1 5).
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 461/2. This is called a St. Bell, because it hath not Canons on the head to fasten it to the stock.
1879. Grove, Dict. Mus., I. 219/2. They [bells] are first carefully secured by iron bolts and braces through the ears or ‘canons’ … to the stock.
1882. School Guardian, No. 315. 12. The height of the bell from the lip to the top of the canons is 8 ft.
15. attrib. and Comb., as canon law (see 1 b), -lawyer, -making, monument (cf. 9), rule, type (cf. 11): canon-like, -wise adjs.
1601. Bp. Barlow, Defence, 99. We acknowledge it *Canon-like, but not Canonicall.
1659. Baxter, Key Cath., xxv. 147. This is a cheaper way of *Canon-making in a corner.
1631. R. Byfield, Doctr. Sabb., 149. You finde nothing … in any … *cannon monument, and register of Antiquitie.
1603. Holland, Plutarch’s Mor., 33. The very *Canon rule, and paterne of all vertue.
1641. Milton, Reform., Wks. 1738, I. 7. An insulting and only *Canon-wise Prelate.
