basilolatry

B3A1S1I1L1O1L1A1T1R1Y4
UK/basɪlˈɒlətɹi/

noun

basileiolatry

Scrabble 16

Meanings

nounbasilolatry (uncountable)
  1. uncountablebasileiolatry

    His animus…led him to handle as self-evident fallacies the darling predilections of centuries of British basilolatry.

    1904, Louise Imogen Guiney, Hurrell Froude, page 214
    5 more examples

    [Bp Samuel] Parker has been more than usually offensive in his Basilolatry (if we may coin a word), and [Andrew] Marvell says, “His Majesty” (it would seem) “may lay by his Dieu, and make use only of his mon droit.”

    1876, Henry Kingsley, Fireside Studies I, “The Old-Fashioned Member”, page 261

    The fact is that there is not in the Roman liturgy…any of the extravagant basilolatry which we find in the Book of Common Prayer.

    1902, The Month, C, page 89

    Individualism…was not quite at its best in the self-righteous era of George the Third, and under the Establishment which was regulated by a now almost obsolete basilolatry.

    1904, Louise Imogen Guiney, Robert Emmet, page 68

    Why Thomas Cromwell himself should have contrasted his “mean parentage” with his “high estate,” except out of sheer servility of spirit, out of what has been called basilolatry, the saving dread of the Tudors, is not apparent.

    1914, Wilfrid Ward, editor, The Dublin Review, CLIV, page 250

    The ‘basilolatry’ or king-worship which came to disfigure the Prayer Book stands in marked contrast to the sober intercessions of the Roman liturgy of the period for both emperor and king.

    1993, Aidan Nichols, The Panther and the Hind, page 24

Origin

  1. Ancient Greekλατρεία
  2. Ancient Greekβασιλ(εύς)“king”
  3. Englishbasilolatry

Ancient Greek βασιλ(εύς) (basil(eús), “king”) + English -latry (from the Ancient Greek λατρεία (latreía), latreia, “worship”); compare basileiolatry, basileolatry, basilic, and basilisk

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

basilolatry. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/basilolatry

MLA

“basilolatry.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/basilolatry. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “basilolatry,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/basilolatry.

Source: basilolatry on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.