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Webster 1913 Edition


Aceldama

A-cel′da-ma

,
Noun.
[Gr. [GREEK], fr. Syr.
ōkēl damō
the field of blood.]
The potter’s field, said to have lain south of Jerusalem, purchased with the bribe which Judas took for betraying his Master, and therefore called
the field of blood
. Fig.: A field of bloodshed.
The system of warfare . . . which had already converted immense tracts into one universal
aceldama
.
De Quincey.

Webster 1828 Edition


Aceldama

ACEL'DAMA

,
Noun.
A field said to have laid south of Jerusalem, the same as the potters field, purchased with the bribe which Judas took for betraying his master, and therefore called the field of blood. It was appropriated to the interment of strangers.

Definition 2024


aceldama

aceldama

English

Noun

aceldama (plural aceldamas)

  1. The potter's field, said to have lain south of Jerusalem, purchased with the bribe which Judas took for betraying his master, and therefore called the field of blood.
  2. A field of bloodshed, a place of slaughter. [from 17th c.]
    • 1849, Thomas de Quincey, ‘The English Mail-Coach’:
      …a regiment already for some hours glorified and hallowed to the ear of all London, as lying stretched, by a large majority, upon one bloody aceldama […].
    • 1928, Edmund Blunden, Undertones of War, Penguin 2010, p. 42:
      Our own trenches had been knocked silly, and all the area of attack had been turned into an Aceldama.

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