Pauline

plural Paulines

1. A female given name from Latin.

   The youngest child of George and Emily Johnson was named Emily after her mother, and Pauline in honor of the only sibling of Emperor Napoleon of France, whose life was the object of George Johnson's consuming interest.

   1987, Betty Keller, Pauline: A Biography of Pauline Johnson, Formac Publ. Co., published 1989, →ISBN, page 19

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   Paulines are thought to be the most miserable because the name conjures up images of long-suffering launderess Pauline Fowler from EastEnders while Judy is more likely to be associated with Judy Dench or Judy Finnegan.

   2009 March 28, Sarah Knapton, “Happiness is all in a name, just ask Judy and Joshua”, in The Daily Telegraph, London: Telegraph Media Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 10 Mar 2011

1. not comparableChristianityOf or relating to Paul the Apostle, his writings, his doctrines, and the form of Christianity that arose from them.

   Synonyms: Paulian

plural Paulines

1. ChristianityA member of a religious order named after Paul the Apostle.

   The Benedictines, Paulines, and other orders of monks apply themſelves after their manner to learning in their ſeveral convents.

   1765, D[aniel] Fenning, J[oseph] Collyer, et al., “Of the Religion and Learning of the Hungarians”, in A New System of Geography: or, A General Description of the World. […], volume II, London: […] S. Crowder, […] and sold by Mr. Jackson, […], →OCLC, book III (Of Europe in General), chapter VIII (Of Hungary, […]), page 127, column 2

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   With sectes many mo, / An hundreth in a throo / I thinke to name by roo, / As they come to my mynde, / Whom, thoughe they be vnkind, / The lay mens labor finde; / For some be Benedictes […] Some be Paulines, / Some be Antonynes, / Some be Bernardines, /Some be Celestines, […]

   a. 1550, “[Poems Attributed to [John] Skelton.] The Image of Ipocrysy.”, in Alexander Dyce, editor, The Poetical Works of John Skelton: […], volume II, London: Thomas Rodd, […], published 1843, →OCLC, pages 440–441

   Like the Pope and the Cardinal, the Paulines, formally called the Order of St. Paul, the First Hermit, are of Polish heritage. […] The newspaper articles say that the Paulines have avoided bankruptcy and held off possible criminal prosecution only through a $5 million “bailout” by Cardinal Krol and a cover‐up by Catholic officials that reached all the way to the Pope.

   1979 September 21, Ben A. Franklin, “Cover‐Up Alleged in Monastic Scandal”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 16 Apr 2020

2. ChristianityA person who follows or is associated with Paul the Apostle or his doctrines.

   Between Paul and Apollos there had arisen distinct rivalry. When he wrote this epistle to Corinth, quite a chasm existed already between the Paulines and the Apollonians, with something of a rift between Apollos and himself.

   1924, J[ames] Rendel Harris, “All Things Are Yours”, in As Pants the Hart and Other Devotional Addresses, London: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC, page 108

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   It is probable that both Paul and Ignatius [of Antioch] died in partial consequence of the hatred of Jewish Christians (that is, those loyal to Peter and James); and we shall see that the Paulines, especially St John [the Evangelist], hated the Jewish Christians with an equal ferocity.

   1994, Michael Goulder, “The Basic Tension”, in St. Paul versus St. Peter: A Tale of Two Missions, Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John Knox Press, published 1995, →ISBN, page 6

   Paul, declared the presenter Jonathan Edwards, is “one of my heroes. The passion of his beliefs shone out like the noonday sun.” Yet for Paulines and non-Paulines alike, the crucial question remains: did Paul actually see Jesus, as he claimed to have done?

   2003 July 6, John Preston, “Television: The God factor”, in The Sunday Telegraph, final edition, number 2,195, London: Telegraph Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 9, column 1

   Synonyms: Paulian

3. in pluralChristianityOne of the Pauline epistles.

   The Pauline character is further enhanced by the numerous verbal similarities with passages in the genuine Paulines. Scholars have found echoes of practically all Paulines in Ephesians.

   1999, Alvar Ellegård, “Ephesians”, in Jesus – One Hundred Years Before Christ: A Study in Creative Mythology, London: Century, →ISBN, part I (Recovering First-Century Christianity), chapter 7 (Colossians and Ephesians), page 154

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   One of the most characteristic departures from class. style is the rarity of the correlation of μέν and δέ in Biblical Greek; it occurs with any frequency only in some Paulines, Ac and Heb.

   1963, Nigel Turner, “Simple Particles”, in A Grammar of New Testament Greek, volume III (Syntax), Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, →OCLC, chapter 25 (Co-ordinating Particles), page 331

   In this way, namely by comparing each Pauline with some others, he tries to arrive at conclusions as to what could be ‘normally’ expected and how far such expectation is exceeded in one or the other direction. But clearly every such estimation depends upon the authenticity of the particular Paulines which are used as standards for the comparison.

   1966, Gustav Herdan, “The Pauline Epistles”, in The Advanced Theory of Language as Choice and Chance (Kommunikation und Kybernetik in Einzeldarstellungen; 4), New York, N.Y.: Springer-Verlag, →LCCN, →OCLC, part III (Language as Chance II – Optimal Systems of Language Structure), section B (Combinatories on the Lexicon Level), chapter 13 (The Generalised Random Partitioning Function and Stylostatistics), page 220

4. A member of St Paul’s School, London.

   Before the Greenhouse project used the magic medium of contact sports to bring the boys together, the Paulines' name for local boys from comprehensives in Barnes was "the Garys".

   2003 July 19, Rachel Johnson, “Sharing a level playing field”, in The Daily Telegraph, London: Telegraph Media Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 17 Apr 2026

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   I wasn't unusually unfashionable or unworldly by St Paul's standards. But the standards weren't high. Put it like this: most Paulines I knew would have assumed a Camberwell carrot was vegetable grown in south London.

   2001 June 13, Nick Hopkins, “Top of the grass”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 09 May 2014

   Numbers of old Etonians, Harrovians, Wykehamists and Paulines are dropping fast. These universities are starting to resemble the country at large, not just a cross-section of quadrangular toffs.

   2023 February 26, Josh Glancy, “I went back to Oxford to see if the Bullingdon days are over”, in The Times, London: News UK, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 14 Sep 2025