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xoanon

[ zoh-uh-non ]

noun

, Greek Antiquity.
, plural xo·a·na [zoh, -, uh, -n, uh].
  1. a simple, carved image, especially one in which the original block of stone or wood is readily apparent.


xoanon

/ ˈzəʊəˌnɒn /

noun

  1. a primitive image of a god, carved, esp originally, in wood, and supposed to have fallen from heaven
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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Word History and Origins

Origin of xoanon1

1700–10; < Greek xóanon carved image; akin to xeîn to scrape, carve
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Word History and Origins

Origin of xoanon1

C18: from Greek, from xuō to scrape, smooth
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Example Sentences

Between them stood a gilt xoanon, which seems to have been carried outside in sacred processions.

Other rich furniture is described, and a mode of divination by movements of a xoanon of Apollo.

Xoanon, zō′a-non, n. a primitive statue, fallen from heaven, originally of wood, later overlaid with ivory and gold.

But I shall not here trace the idol worshipped while yet merely a rude trunk or stock, and in that state called Sanis, through the Xoanon, when the wood was pared or shaven until it became a Deikelon or Bretas, having assumed a likeness, however faint, of the human form.

The eastern door of the Erechtheum was not the normal, not the intended entrance to the cella of Athena, but served as the traditional eastern entrance toward which the xoanon faced.

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