lionism

Meanings

1. The 19th-century practice of bringing a lion (“an interesting person or object”) into one’s home as entertainment for visitors.
2. The state of being the lion (see above) of 19th-century hosts.
3. The practice of lionizing (“treating a person as a celebrity or someone important”); also, the state of being lionized.
4. The state of a person having a leonine facies, that is, facial features which resemble those of a lion as a result of some disease, especially a form of leprosy which causes leontiasis (“a medical condition characterized by an overgrowth of the cranial and facial bones”).
5. The ideals of Rastafarianism.

1. Alternative letter-case form of Lionism (“the ideals of and membership in the Lions Club”).

1. The ideals of and membership in the Lions Club.

1. Alternative letter-case form of lionism.

Etymology

From lion (“big cat (Panthera leo); (figurative) famous person regarded with interest and curiosity; person who shows attributes associated with the lion such as courage, ferocity, or strength”) + -ism (suffix forming names of schools of thought, systems, or theories, or of tendencies of action, behaviour, condition, state, condition, or opinion belonging to a class or group of persons). Etymology 1 sense 1 (“19th-century practice of bringing an interesting person or object into one’s home as entertainment for visitors; state of being such a person or object”) refers to the lions previously on display at a menagerie in the Tower of London, which existed till the 19th century. Etymology 1 sense 4 refers to the Lion of Judah, a hereditary title of Haile Selassie I (1892–1975), the Emperor of Ethiopia, who is revered by some members of the Rastafari movement as the messiah; the lion is thus a symbol of Rastafarianism.