Oxford English Dictionary Entry for "canon"

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See especially the very, very end, where the dictionary lists two new "draft additions" to the definition, proposed in 2002, including one pertaining to literary criticism.

 

Pronunciation:  /ˈkænən/

Forms:  ME canoun, (ME canown), 15–17 cannon, OE, ME– canon.

Etymology:  Found in Old English as canon , < Latin canon rule, < Greek κανών rule. Early Middle English had ˈcanon , probably < Old English, and caˈnun , caˈnoun , < Old French canun , canon , the French descendant of the Latin. Senses 12 – 14 are of obscure origin; some or all may belong to cannon n.¹ in French spelt canon.

 

1.

a. A rule, law, or decree of the Church; esp. a rule laid down by an ecclesiastical Council. the canon (collectively) = canon law n. at sense 1b. The Canons, in the Church of England = ‘The Constitutions and Canons Ecclesiastical’ agreed upon by Convocation, and ratified by King James I under the Great Seal in 1603.

c890   tr. Bede Eccl. Hist. iv. xxiv. (Bosw.)   Canones boc.

a900   Laws of Ælfred xxi, in Thorpe II. 376 (Bosw.)   Ða canonas openlice beodaþ.

a1300   Cursor Mundi 26290   Als þe hali canon [v.r. -oun] vs sais þat scrift on sere-kin sines lais.

1451   Treaty w. Scotl. in T. Rymer Fœdera (1710) XI. 288   Maister Robert Dobbes, Doctor of Canon.

1489   Caxton tr. C. de Pisan Bk. Fayttes of Armes iv. ix. 254   The canon deffendeth expresly al manere of bataille and violent hurt.

1597   R. Hooker Of Lawes Eccl. Politie v. lxi. 137   A sacred Canon of the sixt reuerend Synod.

a1616   Shakespeare All's Well that ends Well (1623) i. i. 144   Selfe-loue, which is the most inhibited sinne in the Cannon.

1658   J. Bramhall Consecr. Bps. viii. 171   The Papall Canons were never admitted for binding Lawes in England.

1827   H. Hallam Constit. Hist. Eng. I. vi. 326   A code of new canons had recently been established in convocation with the king's assent.

1859   J. M. Jephson & L. Reeve Narr. Walking Tour Brittany viii. 131   A priest is expressly forbidden by the canons..to enter a public inn.

 

 b.   canon law n. (formerly law canon: cf. French droit canon): ecclesiastical law, as laid down in decrees of the pope and statutes of councils. (See Gratian, Dist. iii. §2.)

c1340   Cursor M. (Fairf.) 26290   Squa sais lagh Canoun þat is wise, þat shrift on mani synnis lise.

1387   J. Trevisa tr. R. Higden Polychron. (1865) II. 117   By dome of lawe canoun.

c1475  (▸?c1400)    Apol. Lollard Doctr. (1842) 73   Law canoun is callid law ordeynid of prelats of the kirk.

1511   in W. H. Turner Select. Rec. Oxf. (1880) 7   John Prynne, bachiller of Canon.

a1513   R. Fabyan New Cronycles Eng. & Fraunce (1516) II. f. cxlv^v,   They sent y^e estudyauntys of y^e lawe Canon, & Cyuyle.

1552   Abp. J. Hamilton (title-page),   Doctours of Theologie and Canon law.

a1586   Answ. Cartwright 3   The common Lawes are against the cannon Lawes in many hundreth poyntes.

1765   W. Blackstone Comm. Laws Eng. 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   A. Jameson Legends Monastic Orders 346   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   A. Fraunce Lawiers Logike i. ii. f. 7^v,   Such rules, maximaes, canons, axioms..or howsoever you tearme them.

1604   Shakespeare Hamlet i. ii. 132   Or that the euerlasting had not fixt His cannon gainst seale slaughter.

a1616   Shakespeare Coriolanus (1623) i. xi. 26   Against the hospitable Canon.

1673   Milton At Vacation Exercise in Poems (new ed.) 66   Substance with his Canons, which Ens..explains.

1788   T. Reid Aristotle's Logic v. ii. 113   They have reduced the doctrine of the topics to certaine axioms or canons.

1806   Med. & Physical Jrnl. 15 134   The canons of pathology.

1869   J. E. T. Rogers in A. Smith Inq. Wealth Nations (new ed.) I. Pref. 17   The indirect taxation of France violated every canon of financial prudence and equity.

1874   A. H. Sayce Princ. Compar. Philol. i. 58   The canons of taste and polite literature.

1879   F. W. Farrar Life & Work St. Paul I. viii. xxx. 613   We may assume it as a canon of ordinary criticism that a writer intends to be understood.

 

 c. A standard of judgement or authority; a test, criterion, means of discrimination.

1601   P. Holland tr. Pliny Hist. World 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   T. Hobbes Philos. Rudim. xvii. §16. 313   The sacred Scripture is..the Canon and Rule of all Evangelicall Doctrine.

1869   E. M. Goulburn Pursuit Holiness vii. 65   This Lord's Prayer, what a canon does it supply for testing and correcting our spiritual state.

1874   W. Wallace Logic of Hegel §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.

c1400  (▸1391)    Chaucer Treat. Astrolabe (Cambr. Dd.3.53) (1872) ii. §32. 42   Lok how many howres thilke coniunccion is fro the Midday of the day precedent, as shewith by the canoun of thi kalender.

1594   T. Blundeville Exercises (ed. 7) ii. f. 130,   If you shall not finde in the Canon, the Sine which by your calculation is found.

1656   tr. T. Hobbes Elements Philos. iii. xx. 217   The straight line BV..if computed by the Canon of Sines.

1706   Phillips's New World of Words (ed. 6) (at cited word),   In Mathematicks, Cannon is an infallible Rule to resolve all things of the same Nature with the present Inquiry.

1728   E. Chambers Cycl. (at cited word),   Natural Canon of Triangles, is the Canon of Sines, Tangents, and Secants taken together... Artificial Canon, is the Canon..of Cosines, Cotangents, &c.

1798   C. Hutton Course Math. II. 3   A Trigonometrical Canon, is a table exhibiting the length of the sine, tangent, and secant, to every degree and minute of the quadrant.

 

 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; also, those writings of a secular author accepted as authentic.

1382   Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) Apoc. Prol.,   In the bigynnyng of canon, that is, of the bok of Genesis.

1561   T. Norton tr. J. Calvin Inst. Christian Relig. i. vii. f.13^v,   What reuerence is due to the Scripture, and what bokes ar to be reckened in the canon therof.

1641   J. Jackson True Evangelical Temper ii. 116   S. Andrew the Apostle..added nothing to the Canon of Scripture.

1870   F. Max Müller Sci. Relig. (1873) 29   The process by which a canon of sacred books is called into existence.

1882   F. W. Farrar Early Days Christianity 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.

1885   Encycl. Brit. XIX. 211/1   The dialogues forming part of the ‘Platonic canon’.

1953   C. J. Sisson Shakespeare: Compl. Works p. xviii (heading)    The canon and the text.

 

†5. A canonical epistle. See canonical adj. 3.

1483   Caxton tr. J. de Voragine Golden Legende 25/3   Saynt John that saith in his canone, We have, etc.

1502   tr. Ordynarye of Crysten Men (de Worde) ii. i. sig. h.vi^v,   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.

1395   J. Purvey Remonstr. (1851) 42   After the sacringe, in the canoun of the masse.

a1400  (▸a1325)    Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) l. 21190, l. 21192   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.

a1450   Knt. de la Tour (1868) 40.  

1532   T. More Confut. Tyndale in Wks. 490/2   Luter himself casting away the holy canon of y^e masse.

a1656   J. Hales Several Tracts (1677) 43   It was the farther solemnizing, and beautifying that holy action which brought the Canon in.

1781   Gibbon Decline & Fall II. xlv. 695   He officiated in the canon of the mass.

1868   W. F. Hook Lives Archbps. II. ii. iii. 284 (note) ,   The canon or rule was the part of the service containing the actual consecration.

 

 7. Music.

 

 a. 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 indicted in the score, can be read out by the performers in full.’ Cf. quot. 1609.

1597   T. Morley Plaine & Easie Introd. Musicke 104   Of how manie parts the Canon is, so manie Cliefes do they set at the beginning of the verse.

1609   J. Dowland tr. A. Ornithoparchus Micrologus 48   A Canon..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   W. Mason Ess. Eng. Church Music i. 54   Such Organists as were Masters of Canon, Fugue, and Counterpoint.

1869   F. A. G. Ouseley Counterpoint 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 Orthodox Churches, consisting of eight odes, each of many stanzas.

1862   Q. Rev. Apr. 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   W. 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   J. Ayliffe Parergon Juris Canonici Anglicani 139   Which Allowance was, by the ancient Lawyers, called a Canon, and not a Prebend, as now it is.

1847–79   J. O. Halliwell Dict. Archaic & Provinc. Words   Canon, a portion of a deceased man's goods exacted by the priest.

 

 b. A quit-rent.  [compare Littré, Canon 10.]

1643   W. Prynne Soveraigne Power Parl. App. 164   Therefore to sustaine the burthens of Peace, the demesne was instituted, (which among the Lawyers is called Canon).

1774   S. 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. A chief epoch or era, serving to date from (Greek κανὼν χρονικός); a basis for chronology. Cf. canon monument n. at Compounds 1.

1833   C. F. Cruse tr. Eusebius Eccl. Hist. vi. xxii. 242   A certain canon comprising a period of sixteen years.

1876   S. Birch Rede Lect. Egypt 14   The Turin papyrus, the canon of history, a list of all the kings.

 

 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.

1728   E. Chambers Cycl. at 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 19 Years.

 

 10.

   a. (See quot. 1728.)

1728   E. Chambers Cycl.   Canon, is also us'd in some Orders of Religious, for the Book that contains their Rules, Constitutions, &c.

 

 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   J. Moxon Mech. Exercises II.    French Canon 17½[types] to a foot.

1688   R. Holme Acad. Armory iii. iii. 119/2   Canon, the great Canon is the name of the largest Letter for Printing that is used in England.

1721   in N. Bailey Universal Etymol. Eng. Dict.   Canon, (with Printers) a large sort of Printing Letter.

1887   T. B. Reed Hist. Old Eng. Letter 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.)Not in New Sydenham Soc. Lexicon.

1696   E. Phillips New World of Words (ed. 5)    Canon..a Surgeon's Instrument, made use of for the sewing up of Wounds.

1721   in N. Bailey Universal Etymol. Eng. Dict.  

1755   Johnson Dict. Eng. Lang.   Canon,..(among chirurgeons.) an instrument used in sewing up wounds. [Also in mod. Dicts.]

 

 13. (See quot. 1847-78)

1847–78   J. O. Halliwell Dict. Archaic & Provinc. Words   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 n.¹ 5.

1688   R. Holme Acad. Armory iii. 461/2   This is called a St. Bell, because it hath not Canons on the head to fasten it to the stock.

1878   G. Grove Dict. Music I. 219   [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.

 

Compounds

 C1. General attrib.

  canon law n. (See 1b.)

  canon-lawyer n.

  canon-making   n.

1659   R. Baxter Key for Catholicks i. xxv. 147   This is a cheaper way of Canon-making in a corner.

  canon monument   n. (Cf. 9.)

1631   R. Byfield Doctr. Sabbath Vindicated 149   You finde nothing..in any..cannon monument, and register of Antiquitie.

  canon rule   n.

1603   P. Holland tr. Plutarch Morals 33   The very Canon rule, and paterne of all vertu

 

  canon type n.

 

 C2. (Cf 11:)

  canon-like adj.

1601   Bp. W. Barlow Def. Protestants Relig. 99   We acknowledge it Canon-like, but not Canonicall.

 

  canon-wise adj.

1641   Milton Of Reformation 21   An insulting, and only-Canon-wise Prelate.

 

Draft additions July 2002

 

a. Literary Criticism. A body of literary works traditionally regarded as the most important, significant, and worthy of study; those works of esp. Western literature considered to be established as being of the highest quality and most enduring value; the classics (now freq. in the canon). Also (usu. with qualifying word): such a body of literature in a particular language, or from a particular culture, period, genre, etc.

1929   Amer. Lit. 1 95   Those who read bits of Mather with pleasure will continue to feel that those bits cannot be excluded from the canon of literature until much excellent English ‘utilitarian’ prose is similarly excluded.

1953   W. R. Trask tr. E. R. Curtius European Lit. & Lat. Middle Ages xiv. 264   Of the modern literatures, the Italian was the first to develop a canon.

1989   Times Lit. Suppl. 7 July 739   My Secret History..alludes to half the modernist canon, from Eliot to Hemingway to Henry Miller.

1999   N.Y. Rev. Bks. 4 Nov. 29/2   The canon was under attack from feminists and social historians who saw it as the preserve of male and bourgeois dominance.

 

 

 b. In extended use (esp. with reference to art or music): a body of works, etc., considered to be established as the most important or significant in a particular field. Freq. with qualifying word.

1977   R. Macksey in Compar. Lit. 92 1188   The author concentrates on six major works in the operatic canon, masterpieces by two towering figures in the history of Western music.

1985   Washington Post 5 July x12/1   What looks like spaghetti Bolognese and keeps fresh on the shelf for 50 years? Japanese plastic food, the real-as-life models that restaurants in Japan use for the prosaic business of window display, and that visitors have gleefully added to the canon of pop art.

1995   Independent (Nexis) 10 Dec. 2   Mick taught himself to play the guitar and spent ‘a great deal of time’ studying songwriting; not just the soul and R'n'B legends..but the whole rock canon—the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin and the Velvet Underground, but especially The Beatles.

1998   Herald (Glasgow) 3 Sept. 22   The concept has settled comfortably into the canon of accepted biological theory.