Ashtoreth (ashtoreth)

[Written Astoreth by Milton: a Heb., orig. Phenic i an, name, equivalent to the A yrian Ishtar.] Same as Astarte. Ashura (ash'ö-rä), n. [Ar. ' ashir, tenth, Ash Wednesday (ash wenz'dā). [ME. asche-, ask-, ax -wednesday; ash2 and Wednesday.] The first day of Lent. It is named from a custom in the Western Church of sprinkling ashes on the heads of penitents admitted to penance on that day. The origination of this ceremony is generally attributed to Gregory the Great. According to the present rite in the Roman Catholic Church, the ashes are consecrated on the altar, sprinkled with holy water, signed with the cro , and then strewn on the heads of the clergy and people, the priest repeating, "Memento quod cinis es, et in cinerem reverter is" (Remember that thou art dust, and wilt to dust return). ashweed (ash'wed), n. [Formerly also ashe-, aish - weed; A timely-parted ghost, Of ashy semblance, meagre, pale, and bloodle . Shak ., 2 Hen. VI., iii. 2. 2. Sprinkled with ashes. Chaucer . Asian (a's hi an or a'zhian), a. [L. Asian us, Ἀσιανός , Ἀσία , Asia, a town in Lydia, then the region around, extended to mean what is now known as Asia Minor; in Pliny Asia is used, as now, for the whole continent. The origin of the name Ἀσία is unknown.] nown.] Pertaining to Asia, a continent extending from Europe eastward to the Pacific ocean, and from the frozen ocean on the north to the Indian ocean on the south. IMG:content-1228.png:[blocks in formation] a, random-range quarry-faced ashler; b, random-range dre ed-face margin-draft, also iron anchor; e, bonder in ashler; /, rubble filling back of ashler. as distinguished from a stone which is of irregular shape; such stones collectively. Ashlar stones, or ashlars as they are commonly called, are made of various sizes on the surface, as the character of the edifice may require. Encyc . Brit ., IV. 471. 3. Masonry constructed of ashler. When the ashen1 (ash'en or ash'n), a. [ aschen , ascen (Bosworth), æsc , ash: see ash1 and -en2.] Pertaining to the ash-tree or its timber; made of ash. courses are not regular, but broken up by the use of stones of different thickne es, it is called broken ashler or ran dom-range ashler. Small ashler employs stones of le than one foot in breadth. Bastard ashler is an ashler face backed with rubble or other inferior work, as in all courses but the lowest in the cut. Ashler is said to be plane when it is smoothed on the exposed face; tooled proper , His ashen spear, that quivered as it flew. when the tooling is in grooves; random - tooled , when cut Dryden, tr. of Ovid's Meta morph., xii. 494. without regularity; chiseled or boasted , when wrought with +-ism.] A florid and inflated style of oratory or rhetorical treatment, such as was characteristic of the Asiatic Greeks in the three centuries preceding the Christian era. Asiarch (a's hi-ärk), n. [ It was probably the policy of the Romans to encourage centralisation in the religious organisation of their prov. inces, and the titles "Archiereus of Asia" and Asiarch were probably introduced by them into Asia Minor. C. T. Newton, Art and Archæol., p. 165. IMG:content-1229.png:[blocks in formation] II. n. A native of Asia.