novitiate

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no·vi·ti·ate

also no·vi·ci·ate (nō-vĭsh′ē-ĭt, -āt′)

1. The period of being a novice.

2. A place where novices live.

[Medieval Latin novīciātus, from novīcius, novice; see novice.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

novitiate

(nəʊˈvɪʃɪɪt; -ˌeɪt) or

noviciate

1. (Ecclesiastical Terms) the state of being a novice, esp in a religious order, or the period for which this lasts

2. (Ecclesiastical Terms) the part of a religious house where the novices live

3. a less common word for novice

[C17: from French noviciat, from Latin novīcius novice]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

no•vi•ti•ate

(noʊˈvɪʃ i ɪt, -ˌeɪt)

n.

1. the state or period of being a novice, as of a religious order.

2. the quarters occupied by religious novices.

3. novice.

[1590–1600; < Medieval Latin novītiātus =novīti(us) novice]

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Noun	1.	novitiate - the period during which you are a novice (especially in a religious order) noviciate faith, religion, religious belief - a strong belief in a supernatural power or powers that control human destiny; "he lost his faith but not his morality" period, period of time, time period - an amount of time; "a time period of 30 years"; "hastened the period of time of his recovery"; "Picasso's blue period"
	2.	novitiate - someone who has entered a religious order but has not taken final vows novice religious person - a person who manifests devotion to a deity

novitiate

noun

1. apprenticeship, training, probation These monks left the monastery without completing their novitiate.

2. novice, probationer, postulant Claudio's sister, Isabella, is a novitiate in a convent.

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

novitiate

also noviciate
noun

1. An entrant who has not yet taken the final vows of a religious order:

novice.

2. One who is just starting to learn or do something:

abecedarian, beginner, fledgling, freshman, greenhorn, initiate, neophyte, novice, tenderfoot, tyro.

Slang: rookie.

Translations

noviziato

Mentioned in ?

References in classic literature ?

Forward then, Sancho my friend, let us go to keep the year of the novitiate in our own country, and in that seclusion we shall pick up fresh strength to return to the by me never-forgotten calling of arms."

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Perhaps his mother had a reasonable distrust of the practice of Dr Todd, who must then have been in the novitiate of his experimental acquirements.

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So he ordered Lamai forthright down to live in the youths' canoe house, there to begin his novitiate in the long series of tasks, tests and ceremonies that would graduate him into the bachelors' canoe house and half way along toward being a recognized man.

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With the fortitude of a devoted novitiate, she had resolved at oneandtwenty to complete the sacrifice, and retire from all the pleasures of life, of rational intercourse, equal society, peace and hope, to penance and mortification for ever.

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If he could pass muster anywhere during his early novitiate it would be in small inns and on the road; so to these places we confined ourselves.

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As I shall not have occasion to refer either to her or her sister again, I may as well mention here, that Georgiana made an advantageous match with a wealthy worn-out man of fashion, and that Eliza actually took the veil, and is at this day superior of the convent where she passed the period of her novitiate, and which she endowed with her fortune.

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"John of Hordle," he thundered, "you have shown yourself during the two months of your novitiate to be a recreant monk, and one who is unworthy to wear the white garb which is the outer symbol of the spotless spirit.

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'Well, now, indeed, Madame Mantalini,' said Miss Knag, as Kate was taking her weary way homewards on the first night of her novitiate;

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Treville," added the king, in a low voice, as the others were retiring, "as you have no room in the Musketeers, and as we have besides decided that a novitiate is necessary before entering that corps, place this young man in the company of the Guards of Monsieur Dessessart, your brother-in-law.

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It was in the year after that of my novitiate, a halcyon period at the Albany, when Raffles left no crib uncracked, and I played second-murderer every time.

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But I go with my friend to the shore of our little river, and with one stroke of the paddle I leave the village politics and personalities, yes, and the world of villages and personalities behind, and pass into a delicate realm of sunset and moonlight, too bright almost for spotted man to enter without novitiate and probation.

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Undoubtedly the position of supernumerary in a government office is precisely what the novitiate is in a religious order,--a trial.