Huguenot

American  

[hyoo-guh-not, yoo-] / ˈhyu gəˌnɒt, ˈyu- /

noun

1. a member of the Reformed or Calvinistic communion of France in the 16th and 17th centuries; a French Protestant.

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Huguenot British  

/ -ˌnɒt, ˈhjuːɡəˌnəʊ /

noun

1. a French Calvinist, esp of the 16th or 17th centuries

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adjective

1. designating the French Protestant Church

Other Word Forms

• Huguenotic adjective
• Huguenotism noun

Etymology

Origin of Huguenot

1555–65; < French, perhaps blend of Hugues (name of a political leader in Geneva) and eidgenot, back formation from eidgenots, Swiss variant of German Eidgenoss confederate, literally, oath comrade

Example Sentences

The ships were loaded with guns and other munitions, gold, silver, foodstuffs, livestock, and nearly a thousand sailors and Protestant colonists called Huguenots seeking freedom in the New World.

From Literature

The museum, located in the historic home of a 17th-century Huguenot leader, doesn’t have on-site security.

From The Wall Street Journal

Like the Huguenots before them, over time Jewish people dispersed from the area, some of them to the richer suburbs of north London.

From BBC

The French Wars of Religion, lasting from 1562 to 1598, pitted Catholics and Huguenots against each other, fighting for the soul of France.

From Salon

It was perched on a small hill on New Paltz’s Huguenot Street, perhaps the oldest continuously inhabited street in America.

From Washington Post