English Explanatory Dictionary

Molokan

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A member of a Christian sect that evolved from "Spiritual Christian" Russian peasants who refused to obey the Russian Orthodox Church, beginning in the 1600s in the Russian Empire as an indigenous adaptation of the Protestant movement from Europe. Named for their heresy of eating (including dairy foods), instead of fasting, during Lent.
  2. A general term used (in place of a specific term) in literature and news in and about the Russian Empire to label a member of any Spiritual Christian sect (real or imagined: Holy Roller, Doukhobor, Sabbatarian, Quaker, Mormon, etc.), pacifist, dissenter, non-conformist, coward, wimp.

Word forms

Molokan Molokans Molokane Molokany

Etymology

Borrowed from Russian молокан (molokan, “dairy-eater, nursing infant, white-colored”).

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
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