Word.ws English Dictionary

hoplochrism

UK/ˈhɒpləʊkɹɪzm/

hoplochrism noun: the superstitious practice of applying a salve, ointment, or chrism to a weapon that has caused an injury — rather than to the injury itself — in the belief that doing so will heal the wound that the weapon caused; weapon salve.

Noun

hoplochrism (uncountable)

  1. (historical, rare) The superstitious practice of applying a salve, ointment, or chrism to a weapon that has caused an injury — rather than to the injury itself — in the belief that doing so will heal the wound that the weapon caused; weapon salve.
    • For quotations using this term, see Citations:hoplochrism.

Forms of hoplochrism

alternative formhoplochrisme

Origin of hoplochrism

Formed as hoplo- (“weapon”) + chrism (“consecrated oil mingled with balm”, “unguent”); equivalent to the Ancient Greek ὅπλον (hóplon, “weapon”) + χρῖσμα (khrîsma, “salve”).

Words formed from hoplochrism

  • hoplochristical

Questions about hoplochrism

What does hoplochrism mean?
Hoplochrism means the superstitious practice of applying a salve, ointment, or chrism to a weapon that has caused an injury — rather than to the injury itself — in the belief that doing so will heal the wound that the weapon caused; weapon salve.
What part of speech is hoplochrism?
Hoplochrism is a noun.
How do you pronounce hoplochrism?
Hoplochrism is pronounced /ˈhɒpləʊkɹɪzm/ (UK).

Words near hoplochrism in the dictionary

  1. hoplocarids
  2. hoplocercid
  3. hoplocercids
  4. hoplocercine
  5. hoplocercines
  6. hoplochrism
  7. hoplochrisme
  8. hoplolaimid
  9. hoplolaimids
  10. hoplolatry
  11. hoplological

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hoplochrism (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “hoplochrism.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hoplochrism. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.