dominical

adj

1. (not-comparable)Of or pertaining to Jesus Christ as Lord.

   “The Dominical Prayer, and the Apoſtolical Creed, (vvhereof there vvas ſuch a hot diſpute in our laſt converſation) are tvvo Acts tending to the ſame object of devotion, yet they differ in this, that vve conclude all in the firſt, and ourſelves only in the ſecond, […]”

   “VVhereas 'tis clear, that Rome obſerved the firſt day of the vveek, becauſe 'tvvas the Dominical day, the day of our Lord's Reſurrection; vvhereas the proper Paſchal-day vvas tvvo or three days before the Lords day: […]”

   “[A]t the firſt Intervievv vvith Mrs. Heartfree, Mr. VVild had conceived that Paſſion, […] vvhich is indeed no other than that Friendſhip vvhich, after the Exerciſe of the Dominical Day is over, a luſty Divine is apt to conceive for the vvell-dreſt Sirloin, or handſome Buttock, vvhich the vvell-edified 'Squire, in Gratitude, ſets before him, and vvhich, ſo violent is his Love, he is deſirous to devour.”

2. (archaic, not-comparable)Of or pertaining to the Lord's Day, Sunday.

   “And vvho knovvs not the ſuperſtitious rigor of his Sundays Chapel, and the licentious remiſſneſs of his Sundays Theater; accompanied vvith that reverend Statute for Dominical Jigs and Maypoles, publiſht in his ovvn Name, and deriv'd from the example of his Father James.”

3. (figuratively, historical, not-comparable, obsolete)Of or pertaining to the ancient system of dominical letters, used for determining Sundays (particularly Easter Sunday) in any given year.

   “I haue compoſde a Dictionary, in vvhich / He is inſtructed, hovv, vvhen, and to vvhom / To be proud or humble; at vvhat times of the yeare / He may do a good deed for it ſelfe, and that is / VVrit in Dominicall letters, […]”

   “[S]uch obſerved that our Fights of greateſt importance vvere fought on the Lords day, As the Fight at Edgehill, Nevvbury, &c. as pointing at our ſin in the puniſhment, and Gods vvrath vvas vvritten in Dominical letters: […]”

4. (figuratively, historical, not-comparable, obsolete)Of or pertaining to the ancient system of dominical letters, used for determining Sundays (particularly Easter Sunday) in any given year.

   “[T]hese nails that by good token have not been pared since eighty-eight, should have scratched your face till it had been a dominical one, and as full of red letters as any Pond's Almanac in Christendom.”

noun

1. A person who keeps Sunday as a day of rest, but does not regard it as representing the Sabbath of the Old Testament of the Bible.
2. (British, historical)A payment legally due from a parishioner to the parish, because the parishioner's house was built on land, ownership of which would have originally obliged the landowner to pay a tithe to the parish.

   “Mr. Moore, in opening his case, stated that a custom obtained in this city [Exeter] of paying an annual amount of 4s. 8d. to the officiating clergyman of different parishes, which was termed dominicals. […] [T]he custom had existed for a long while in the parish of paying these dominicals, which might be taken in light of personal tithes, payable on land covered by houses.”

   “[D]ominicals, as I understood, were payments in the nature of tithes, in respect of houses built upon land originally subject to tithe, which view was supported by the fact that in some of the parishes in the city both tithes and dominicals were payable, but in no instance that I was aware of was the same property subject to both.”

   “A largely attended meeting was held on Friday night in Exeter, to protest against the custom of levying dominicals, which is being enforced in several parishes in the city. It seems that London, York, and Exeter are the only three cities in which the custom exists.”

3. (obsolete)The Lord's Day; Sunday.

   “The Goſpels appointed by the Church for the three other Dominicals, or Lords Days in Advent, refer to the firſt manner of his [Jesus's] coming, to vvit, in humility to viſit and redeem his people.”

   “The Lutherans retain the cuſtom of Preaching upon the Dominicals.”

   “Many of the Collects, Epiſtles, and Goſpels for the Dominicals, and Feſtivals may be reduced to this Creed, and may ſerve for a clear explication of it.”

4. (abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis, obsolete)Ellipsis of dominical letter.

   “Let me not die your debtor, / My red Dominicall, my golden letter, / O that your face vvere not ſo full of Oes.”

   “If Gregory [i.e., Pope Gregory XIII] in the caſtigation of the Julian year had throvvn out only 7 days or a VVeek, the Dominicals of the Gregorian had been ſtill the ſame vvith the Julian; but in regard that he lop'd off ten, vvhich is three above ſeven, vve muſt take three Letters of the Julian Dominical to make it Gregorian.”

   “[In] the year 1771, the Dominical is F and the Prime 5[.]”