Hypertext Webster Gateway: "Litany"

From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)

Litany \Lit"a*ny\, n.; pl. {Litanies}. [OE. letanie, OF.
letanie, F. litanie, L. litania, Gr. ?, fr. ? to pray, akin
to ?, ?, to pray, ? prayer.]
A solemn form of supplication in the public worship of
various churches, in which the clergy and congregation join,
the former leading and the latter responding in alternate
sentences. It is usually of a penitential character.

Supplications . . . for the appeasing of God's wrath
were of the Greek church termed litanies, and rogations
of the Latin. --Hooker.

From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)

litany
n 1: any long and tedious address or recital; "the patient
recited a litany of complaints"
2: a prayer consisting of a series of invocations by the priest
with responses from the congregation [syn: {Litany}]


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