Pilgrims

[pil-grim, -gruhm]

pil·grim

[pil-grim, -gruhm]
noun
1.
a person who journeys, especially a long distance, to some sacred place as an act of religious devotion: pilgrims to the Holy Land.
2.
a traveler or wanderer, especially in a foreign place.
3.
an original settler in a region.
4.
(initial capital letter) one of the band of Puritans who founded the colony of Plymouth, Mass., in 1620.
5.
a newcomer to a region or place, especially to the western U.S.

Origin:
1150–1200; Middle English pilegrim, pelegrim, cognate with Old Frisian pilegrīm, Middle Low German pelegrīm, Old High German piligrīm, Old Norse pīlagrīmr, all < Medieval Latin pelegrīnus, dissimilated variant of Latin peregrīnus peregrine

pil·gri·mat·ic, pil·gri·mat·i·cal, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Pilgrims is always a great word to know.
So is callithumpian. Does it mean:
a children's mummer's parade, as on the Fourth of July, with prizes for the best costumes.
a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.
Collins
World English Dictionary
Pilgrim Fathers or Pilgrims
 
pl n
the Pilgrim Fathers the English Puritans who sailed on the Mayflower to New England, where they founded Plymouth Colony in SE Massachusetts (1620)
 
Pilgrims or Pilgrims
 
pl n

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
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American Heritage
Cultural Dictionary

Pilgrims definition


A group of English Puritans, persecuted in their own country, who emigrated to America. The first group arrived on the Mayflower in 1620. They landed at Plymouth Rock, in what is now Massachusetts, and established the Plymouth Colony, with the Mayflower Compact as their constitution. William Bradford and Miles Standish were noted leaders of the colony.

The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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