lionisms

Noun

lionism (plural lionisms)

1. (historical) The 19th-century practice of bringing a lion (“an interesting person or object”) into one’s home as entertainment for visitors.
   • [page 262] The practice of "Lionism" originates in some feelings which are very good,—in veneration for intellectual superiority, and gratitude for intellectual gifts; and its form and prevalence are determined by the fact, that literature has reached a larger class, and interested a different...1832 April, H[arriet] M[artineau], “Art. I.—Heads of the People. The ‘Lion’ of a Party. London, 1839. … [book review]”, in The London and Westminster Review, volume XXXII, number II, London: […]...
2. (historical) The state of being the lion (see above) of 19th-century hosts.
   • In the whirl and giddiness of his lionism, he had contracted debts with the same recklessness as he had done every thing else. But his sense of honour was now galled when these debts were to be paid, and he found himself without money to pay them.1847, [George Henry Lewes], “Expiation”, in Ranthorpe, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, book III (The Unsuccessful Author), page 118
3. (broadly) The practice of lionizing (“treating a person as a celebrity or someone important”); also, the state of being lionized.
   • So sudden; all common Lionism, which ruins innumerable men, was as nothing to this. […] [T]hese Lion-hunters were the ruin and death of [Robert] Burns. […] They gathered round him in his Farm; hindered his industry; no place was remote enough from them. He could not get his Lionism forgotten...1840 May 19, Thomas Carlyle, “Lecture V. The Hero as Man of Letters. Johnson, Rousseau, Burns.”, in On Heroes, Hero-Worship and The Heroic in History, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1840...
4. The state of a person having a leonine facies, that is, facial features which resemble those of a lion as a result of some disease, especially a form of leprosy which causes leontiasis (“a medical condition characterized by an overgrowth of the cranial and facial bones”).
5. (Rastafari) The ideals of Rastafarianism.
   • [page 73] Lionism transcends even Haile Selassie who merely came in the name of the Lion – as "The Conquering Lion of Judah" or as the "man-lion from Mount Zion." […] [page 75] Most Rastas attempt to become lions by attempting to syncretise and use all of these elements [Anancism...1980 December, Dennis Forsythe, “West Indian Culture through the Prism of Rastafarianism”, in R[alston] M[ilton] Nettleford, editor, Caribbean Quarterly: Rastafari, volume 26, number 4, Mona...

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