interdict

From Middle English entrediten, from Old French entredire (“forbid”), from Latin interdīcō (“prohibit, forbid”), from inter- (“between”) + dīcō (“say”), from Proto-Indo-European *deyḱ-.

• (General American) IPA^(key): (noun) /ˈɪntɚdɪkt/, (verb) /ɪntɚˈdɪkt/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): (noun) /ˈɪntədɪkt/, (verb) /ɪntəˈdɪkt/

  • Audio (Southern England); “interdict” (noun):

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  • Audio (Southern England); “interdict” (verb):

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• Hyphenation: in‧ter‧dict

interdict (plural interdicts)

1. A papal decree prohibiting the administration of the sacraments from a political entity under the power of a single person (e.g., a king or an oligarchy with similar powers). Extreme unction/Anointing of the Sick is excepted.
2. (Scots law) An injunction.
   • 1951 April, “Notes and News: North Fife Line, Scotland”, in Railway Magazine, number 600, page 281:

     The Fife County Council, and other objectors, were successful in July [1950] in obtaining an interim interdict against this decision, but the Court of Session withdrew the interdict in January, and it was then stated that a civil court had no jurisdiction in the matter. […] Mr. Waller adds that when the railway was authorised in 1897, one of the clauses of the Act authorising the transfer of the line to the North British Railway provided that that company should work it in perpetuity, and it was this clause that caused the interim interdict to be granted.

   • 2021 August 25, David Clough, “The Sleeper experience”, in RAIL, number 938, page 61:

     In May [1995], the court issued an interdict preventing the service withdrawal, pending consultation on the closure to passenger traffic of three short stretches of railway around Glasgow and its hinterland that were only used by the Fort William Sleeper - and for which BR had failed to invoke standard closure procedures.

interdict (third-person singular simple present interdicts, present participle interdicting, simple past and past participle interdicted)

1. (transitive, Roman Catholicism) To exclude (someone or somewhere) from participation in church services; to place under a religious interdict.
   • 1726, John Ayliffe, Parergon Juris Canonici Anglicani: Or, A Commentary, by Way of Supplement to the Canons and Constitutions of the Church of England. , London: D. Leach, and sold by John Walthoe , →OCLC:

     An archbishop [may not only] excommunicate and interdict his suffragans, but his Vicar-General may also do the same.

2. (transitive) To forbid (an action or thing) by formal or legal sanction.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. , London: [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker ; nd by Robert Boulter ; nd Matthias Walker, , →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: , London: Basil Montagu Pickering , 1873, →OCLC:

     Charged not to touch the interdicted tree.

3. (transitive) To forbid (someone) from doing something.
   • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XL, in Francesca Carrara. , volume III, London: Richard Bentley, , (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 337:

     Do not look so alarmed, Madame; every possible precaution has been taken to prevent infection. I have given the strictest orders to interdict any communication between her attendants and those devoted to your service.

4. (transitive, US, military) To impede (an enemy); to interrupt or destroy (enemy communications, supply lines etc).
   • 1988, James McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, Oxford, published 2004, page 756:

     Grant did not cease his efforts to interdict Lee's supply lines and break through the defenses.

• interdiction
• interdictive
• interdictory
• interdictively
• interdictor

Borrowed from Latin interdictum.

interdict n (plural interdicte)

1. interdict