HOSANNA

(Heb.) An exclamation, signifying literally save now. This Hebrew word occurs only once in the Old Test., viz. Psalm cxviii. 25. This psalm is the last of those which compose the " great Hallel.;" and hence, perhaps, this invocation was used by those who conducted our Saviour into Jerusalem. (Matt, xxi., Mark xi., John xii.) It was afterwards commonly adopted in the church. {Riddle's Christian Antiquities, p. 335.) [s. 577]