Forms: 4–5 cordilere, 6 cordillere, -ylar, -elere, -eleir, 7 -ilier, 6– cordelier. [a. F. cordelier, in OF. also cordeler, f. cordele (now cordelle), dim. of corde CORD: see -IER. Cf. It. cordegliere, cordigliere, OF. cordelois, med.L. cordelita, cordiger.]
1. A Franciscan friar of the strict rule: so called from the knotted cord that they wear round the waist.
c. 1400. Rom. Rose, 7461. So been Augustins, and Cordileres, And Carmes, and eke sacked freres … Full holy men, as I hem deem.
1500–20. Dunbar, Tidings from Session, 45. Baith Carmeleitis and Cordilleris Cumis thair to genner and get ma freiris.
1552. Lyndesay, Monarche, 5685. With small nummer of Monkis and Freris, Off Carmeletis, and Cordeleris.
1663. Butler, Hud., I. i. 260. Of Rule as sullen and severe As that of rigid Cordeliere.
c. 1720. Prior, Thief & Cordelier, iv. A Norman, though late, was obliged to appear, And who to assist but a grave cordelier?
1827. Macaulay, Co. Clergyman’s Trip to Camb., iv. An army of grim Cordeliers … Will follow, Lord Westmoreland fears.
2. pl. Name of one of the political clubs of the French Revolution (club des cordeliers), so called because it met in an old convent of the Cordeliers.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., II. I. iv. The whole Cordeliers District responds to it. Ibid., II. I. v. One party, which thinks the Jacobins lukewarm, constitutes itself into Club of the Cordeliers; a hotter Club; it is Danton’s element.
3. Name given to a machine for rope-making.
1878. in Rossiter, Illustr. Dict. Sc. Terms.
