sperichil

plural sperichils

1. alternativearchaicrareAlternative spelling of spiritual (“African-American Christian religious song”)

   The praise meeting usually opened with a "sperichil" followed by a hymn which the leader "deaconed out" two lines at a time[…]

   1930, Guion Griffis Johnson, A Social History of the Sea Islands: With Special Reference to St. Helena Island, South Carolina, page 148

   2 more examples

   […]all stand up in the middle of the floor, and when the "sperichil" is struck up, begin first walking and by-and-by shuffling round, one after the other, in a ring.

   1867 May 30, “The Magazines for June”, in The Nation, page 433

   Sperichil. Among the Negroes, particularly of South Carolina and Georgia, spiritual, or spiritual shouting when at prayer, when all unite.

   1877, John Russell Bartlett, Dictionary of Americanisms: A Glossary of Words and Phrases Usually Regarded as Peculiar to the United States, page 635