auto-da-fé

[ aw-toh-duh-fey ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

, plural au·tos-da-fé.

the public declaration of the judgment passed on persons tried in the courts of the Spanish Inquisition, followed by the execution by the civil authorities of the sentences imposed, especially the burning of condemned heretics at the stake.

auto-da-fé

/ ˌɔːtəʊdəˈfeɪ /

history a ceremony of the Spanish Inquisition including the pronouncement and execution of sentences passed on sinners or heretics
the burning to death of people condemned as heretics by the Inquisition

1715–25; < Portuguese: act of the faith

C18: from Portuguese, literally: act of the faith

What is more, he takes an intense joy in the mere chase: he has the true Puritan taste for an auto da fé in him.

Frederick looked like a pale, empty, incombustible husk, inside of which a great auto-da-fé had taken place.

He had come to conduct her to the courtyard where the victims destined to appear in the auto-da-fé were collecting.

It is certainly a dramatic, auto-da-fé and a most obliging act, considered with reference to one's possible enemies.

So your vanity wanted such a volcano to engulf you, and you wished to die by the light of such an auto-da-fé.

April 18, 2024petrichor

[pet-ri-kawr]

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