benison

plural benisons

1. literaryA blessing; benediction.

   That elf-maiden smote with her hand so white, “Sorrow and sickness on thee alight” That elf-maiden smote with her cap so small, “No more shall priest's benison on thee fall!”

   1847 September 11, William J. Thoms, “The Folk-lore of Shakespeare”, in The Athenaeum, London, page 958, column 1

   2 more examples

   Poor old men! how could they be cordial with their sore consciences and shamed faces? how could they bid God bless him with hearty voices and a true benison, knowing, as they did, that their vile cabal had driven him from his happy home, and sent him in his old age to seek shelter under a strange roof-tree?

   1855, Anthony Trollope, The Warden, →ISBN, page 197

   When General Grant started on his tour around the world, the City of Brotherly Love was selected as the point of departure, and thence he set sail for Europe with the benisons of the sturdy burghers of the Quaker City.

   1879 December 21, “[Ulysses S.] Grant in Philadelphia”, in Norfolk Virginian, volume XXIX, number 24, Norfolk, Va., →OCLC, page 2, column 1