Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Formerly, in some parts of England, one who was hired in connection with funeral rites to eat a piece of bread placed near the bier, and who by this symbol took upon himself the sins of the deceased, that the departed soul might rest in peace.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A person (usually a man) who is supposed to take
sins of a deceased person upon himself by means of eating a piece of bread, laid for him on the breast of the dead one.
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word sin-eater.
Examples
-
The convenient ‘other’; the outside, the unbeliever, the black sheep, the scapegoat, the sin-eater.
Archive 2009-03-01 2009
-
Instead they must send all their money and pancakes to the fattest religious leader who, like the traditional sin-eater, takes on all their impurities and because of his heightened spiritual awareness can get rich and fat without his soul being tainted.
Ian Gurvitz: Brother John McCain Explains It All For You 2008
-
Finder book 1 : sin-eater / Annapolis Junction, MD : Lightspeed Press, c2007
New Library Comics: Week of February 17, 2008 David S. Carter 2008
-
Finder book 1 : sin-eater / Annapolis Junction, MD : Lightspeed Press, c2007
Archive 2008-02-01 David S. Carter 2008
-
It is similar to the ritual of the sin-eater, the person who would take on by means of food and drink the sins of a deceased person, thus absolving his or her soul and allowing that person to rest in peace.
-
As the sin-eater came closer, I saw that his body was crooked; he seemed caved in on one side, ribs perhaps crushed by some accident.
A Breath of Snow and Ashes Gabaldon, Diana 2005
-
And in her wanderings, had come upon the isolated cabin of the sin-eater, that strange, damaged man.
A Breath of Snow and Ashes Gabaldon, Diana 2005
-
In "The Sin-Eater," one of the best of his writings that might be classed as a short story, the sin-eater and his confidant are Highlanders, but the description of the scene of his misfortune, the steading of the Blairs, might well have been that nearest to "Silence Farm."
Irish Plays and Playwrights Cornelius Weygandt 1914
-
"Hunger he understood, touch, desire," the poet writes of the sin-eater.
-
Fans of the TV series "Night Gallery" may recall a memorable 1972 episode in which Richard Thomas plays a sin-eater.
jjnoel commented on the word sin-eater
a man who (according to a former practice in England) for a small gratuity ate a piece of bread laid on the chest of a dead person, whereby he was supposed to have taken the sins of the dead person upon himself.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
December 30, 2006