Also 2 -cisiun, 3–4 -cicioun, 4 -cisioun, -sisioune, 5 -sycyon, -sysion, 6 -sysyon. [a. OF. circumcisiun (mod.F. circoncision), ad. L. circumcīsiōn-em, n. of action f. circumcīdĕre: see CIRCUMCIDE.]
1. The action of circumcising; practised as a religious rite by Jews and Mohammedans, and by various other nations; also as a surgical operation.
c. 1175. Lamb. Hom., 83. Þene nome þet him wes iȝefen at circumcisiun.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 10986. Þu sal be dumb … Till þe time of his circumsisioune.
1382. Wyclif, John vii. 22. Moyses ȝaf to ȝou circumcisioun.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 207 b. Whiche circumcision (as saynt Bede sayth) was a fygure of baptym.
1634. Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 20. Their Religion is Paganisme, yet Circumsision tels vs, they [Madagascars] haue heard of Mahomet.
1776. Gibbon, Decl. & F., I. xvi. 390. Distinguished by the peculiar mark of circumcision.
1879. A. R. Wallace, Australasia, v. 101. Circumcision is used in the north and in the south.
[1881. Syd. Soc. Lex., Circumcisio fœminarum. The removal of portions of the nymphæ, and sometimes of the clitoris, of the female, as practised by some Eastern nations.]
attrib. 1658. Sir T. Browne, Hydriot., 9. The circumcision knives which Josuah also buried.
1885. Arnold & Sons Catal. Surgic. Instr., 466. Circumcision Clamp.
b. fig. Spiritual purification by, as it were, cutting away sin.
1526. Tindale, Rom. ii. 29. The circumcision of the herte is the true circumcision. Ibid. (1611). Circumcision is, that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter.
1549. Bk. Comm. Prayer, Collect for Circumcision, Graunt vs the true circumcision of thy spirite.
c. transf. In Biblical language: The circumcised people, the Jews; fig. ‘the Israel of God.’
1382. Wyclif, Acts x. 45. The feithful, or cristen, men of circumcisioun [1534 Tindale, They of the circumcision which beleved: so Cranmer, Geneva, and 1611; 1535 Coverdale, The faithfull of the circumcision; so Rheims.]
1611. Bible, Gal. ii. 9. That wee should goe vnto the heathen, and they vnto the circumcision. Ibid., Phil. iii. 3. For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and reioyce in Christ Iesus, and haue no confidence in the flesh.
1839. Yeowell, Anc. Brit. Ch., ii. (1847), 18. The especial apostle of the circumcision.
2. Eccl. The festival of the Circumcision of Christ, observed on the 1st of January.
14[?]. Circumsision (Tundale’s Vis., 98). This day … That called is the Circumsysion.
a. 1558. Songs & Ball. (1860), 5. The tyme of newe yere, callyd the feast of Chrysts syrcomsysyon.
1782. Priestley, Corrupt. Chr., II. VIII. 134. The feast of Circumcision is first mentioned … in 450.
† 3. [As in cl. Lat.] Cutting or shaving round.
1581. J. Bell, Haddon’s Answ. Osor., 489 b. That shavelyng and cowled rowte … with bare scraped scalpes, beyng a new fangled mark of circumcision.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1673), 10. Another beast … much like a Baboun, as appeareth by his natural circumcision.
1761. FitzGerald, Fruit Trees, in Phil. Trans., LII. 72. Making an incision lengthways, from the upper to the under circumcision, I separated the bark.
Circumcisionist, an advocate of circumcision.
1872. Evening Express, 17 Sept. 3/3. Is there not room amid England’s thousand and one sects for a new sect called the Circumcisionists?
1883. J. Parker, Apost. Life, II. 99. He was no circumcisionist.
