Carthusian

Car·thu·sian

noun \kär-ˈthü-zhən, -ˈthyü-\

Definition of CARTHUSIAN

: a member of an ascetic contemplative religious order founded by St. Bruno in 1084

— Carthusian adjective

Origin of CARTHUSIAN

Medieval Latin Cartusiensis, from Cartusia Chartreuse, motherhouse of the Carthusian order, near Grenoble, France

First Known Use: 1526

Rhymes with CARTHUSIAN

affusion, allusion, collusion, conclusion, confusion, contusion, delusion, diffusion, effusion, elusion, exclusion, extrusion, illusion, inclusion, infusion, intrusion, Malthusian, obtrusion, occlusion, perfusion, prelusion, profusion, prolusion, protrusion, reclusion, seclusion, transfusion, Venusian

Carthusian

noun    (Concise Encyclopedia)

Member of a Roman Catholic monastic order founded by St. Bruno of Cologne (c. 1030–1101) in 1084 in the Chartreuse valley of southeastern France. Members of the Order of Carthusians pray, study, eat, and sleep alone but gather in church for morning mass, vespers, and the night office. They dine together on Sundays and major holidays and walk together once a week. They wear hair shirts, abstain from eating meat, and consume only bread and water on Fridays and fast days. At the motherhouse, or Grande Chartreuse (today in Voiron, Isère), the monks distill the liqueur that bears the house's name. Carthusian nuns are also strictly cloistered and contemplative.