recusant
/ˈɹɛkjʊzənt/ noun, adjective
Forms recusants
- noun (historical) Someone refusing to attend Church of England services, between the 16th and early 19th centuries, whether a Protestant dissident or a Roman Catholic.
- noun Anyone refusing to submit to authority or regulation.
- adjective Pertaining to a recusant or to recusancy.
Synonyms
Dissenter Nonconformist free churchman autem cackler refuser defier objector protester iconoclast maverick rebel refusenik renegade dissentient
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin recūsans, recūsāntis, from recūsō (“to refuse, decline; to object to; to protest”). See recuse.
Webster’s 1913
- adjective Obstinate in refusal; specifically, in English history, refusing to acknowledge the supremacy of the king in the churc, or to conform to the established rites of the church; as, a recusant lord.
- noun One who is obstinate in refusal; one standing out stubbornly against general practice or opinion.
- noun A person who refuses to acknowledge the supremacy of the king in matters of religion; as, a Roman Catholic recusant, who acknowledges the supremacy of the pope. Brande & C.
Etymology [L. recusans, -antis, p.pr. of recure to refuse, to oject to; pref. re- re + causa a cause, pretext: cf. F. récusant. See Cause, and cf. Ruse.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “recusant”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details