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Origin and history of tonsure
tonsure(n.)
late 14c., "a ritual shaving of the head or a part of it," especially upon being received into clerical orders, also in reference to the part of the head so shaved; from Anglo-French tonsure (mid-14c.), Old French tonsure "ecclesiastical tonsure; sheep-shearing" (14c.), from Latin tonsura "a shearing, clipping," from tonsus, past participle of tondere "to shear, shave, clip, crop" (from PIE *tend-, from root *tem- "to cut").
In Middle English also used of haircuts and beard-trimmings, also of clipped coins. The verb, "clip or shave the head of," as an ecclesiastic, is attested from 1706 (implied in tonsured). Related: Tonsuring. Tonsor ("barber") is attested as a surname from mid-13c.
Entries linking to tonsure
also *temə-, Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to cut."
It might form all or part of: anatomy; atom; contemplate; contemplation; diatom; dichotomy; -ectomy; entomolite; entomology; entomophagous; epitome; phlebotomy; temple (n.1) "building for worship;" tmesis; tome; -tomy; tonsorial; tonsure.
It might also be the source of: Greek temnein "to cut," tomos "volume, section of a book," originally "a section, piece cut off;" Old Church Slavonic tina "to cleave, split;" Middle Irish tamnaim "I cut off," Welsh tam "morsel."
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