canon

[OE. canon, canoun, AS. canon rule (cf. F. canon, LL. canon, and, for sense 7, F. chanoine, LL. canonicus), fr. L. canon a measuring line, rule, model, fr. Gr. kanw`n rule, rod, fr. ka`nh, ka`nnh, reed. See Cane, and cf. Canonical.]

1. A law or rule.

Or that the Everlasting had not fixed
His canon 'gainst self-slaughter.

2. (Eccl.) A law, or rule of doctrine or discipline, enacted by a council and confirmed by the pope or the sovereign; a decision, regulation, code, or constitution made by ecclesiastical authority.

Various canons which were made in councils held in the second centry.

3. The collection of books received as genuine Holy Scriptures, called the sacred canon, or general rule of moral and religious duty, given by inspiration; the Bible; also, any one of the canonical Scriptures. See Canonical books, under Canonical, a.

4. In monasteries, a book containing the rules of a religious order.

5. A catalogue of saints acknowledged and canonized in the Roman Catholic Church.

6. A member of a cathedral chapter; a person who possesses a prebend in a cathedral or collegiate church.

7. (Mus.) A musical composition in which the voices begin one after another, at regular intervals, successively taking up the same subject. It either winds up with a coda (tailpiece), or, as each voice finishes, commences anew, thus forming a perpetual fugue or round. It is the strictest form of imitation. See Imitation.

8. (Print.) The largest size of type having a specific name; -- so called from having been used for printing the canons of the church.

9. The part of a bell by which it is suspended; -- called also ear and shank. Note: [See Illust. of Bell.] Knight.

10. (Billiards) See Carom.

Apostolical canons. See under Apostolical. -- Augustinian canons, Black canons. See under Augustinian. -- Canon capitular, Canon residentiary, a resident member of a cathedral chapter (during a part or the whole of the year). -- Canon law. See under Law. -- Canon of the Mass (R. C. Ch.), that part of the mass, following the Sanctus, which never changes. -- Honorary canon, a canon{6} who neither lived in a monastery, nor kept the canonical hours. -- Minor canon (Ch. of Eng.), one who has been admitted to a chapter, but has not yet received a prebend. -- Regular canon (R. C. Ch.), one who lived in a conventual community and followed the rule of St. Austin; a Black canon. -- Secular canon (R. C. Ch.), one who did not live in a monastery, but kept the hours.

noun

A principle governing affairs within or among political units: decree, edict, institute, law, ordinance, precept, prescription, regulation, rule. See law.

canon, a body of writings recognized by authority. Those books of holy scripture which religious leaders accept as genuine are canonical, as are those works of a literary author which scholars regard as authentic. The canon of a national literature is a body of writings especially approved by critics or anthologists and deemed suitable for academic study. Canonicity is the quality of being canonical.

Verb: canonize.

The notion of a more-or-less official canon of French literature is a recent development. In earlier centuries the demands of the education system produced a relatively stable list of the essential Latin and Greek classics. Only in the 18th c., however, did French literature come to be seriously studied in schools and colleges, and one finds in the work of Rollin, Batteux, and other pedagogues of the time the beginnings of a national canon. Outside the schools, the Academies, the salons, the press, and critics from Boileau to La Harpe contributed to establishing a hierarchy of French literature, but this remained flexible as long as it was not dominated by the education system.

It was in the 19th c., with the development of national programmes of education, that the literary canon began to take a more fixed shape. Throughout the 19th c. it was dominated by the classical writers of the ‘grand siècle’ (the age of Louis XIV); only under the Third Republic did that other ‘grand siècle’ (the age of Enlightenment) come to occupy an equivalent position. Medieval literature was gradually introduced, at first from a philological standpoint [see Middle Ages, 3], and space was found for the newly revalued writing of the Renaissance, even including the once-despised Rabelais. In the early 19th c. the Romantics had been in revolt against the official hegemony of classicism; they too were fairly quickly taken up into the canon. In the 20th c. certain écrivains maudits (e.g. Baudelaire, Zola) were only grudgingly given the place they now occupy.

No doubt one can exaggerate the importance of school programmes for people's actual reading habits, but they represent a form of authority which seems to call for challenge and modification. Recent decades have seen many changes, including the following: the ‘histoire des mentalités’ suggested by the Annales historians has given strength to the anti-élitist movement to extend the canon beyond the realms of high culture; much work has been done to revive the fortunes of neglected or ostracized movements and writers, from the Rhétoriqueurs to the précieuses, from the 17th-c. libertins to Sade; the forgotten work of female authors has begun to be properly explored [see Women Writers]; the importance of writing in French outside France has been belatedly recognized. Issues such as these—and indeed the very existence of a canon—continue to be hotly debated both inside and outwith France (notably in the USA); further discussion of their relation to the present Companion will be found in the Introduction.

[Peter France]

(Gk., kanon, rule). Texts or books that have special authority in a religious tradition. The concept of canonicity derives mainly from Christianity, and in Buddhism identifies not divinely inspired literature but those writings that are thought to be ‘the word of the Buddha’. This requirement is understood by the Theravāda school as meaning words actually spoken by the historical Buddha. The canon of this school, known as the Pāli Canon, was closed according to tradition at the first council (see Council of Rājagṛha). It is acknowledged, however, that a number of discourses (sutta) in this collection were in fact uttered not by the Buddha but by senior disciples, and that others postdate him. None the less, they are included in the canon since it is felt they were spoken with the Buddha's authority and faithfully express his teachings. Expanding on this principle, schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism regard their canons as still open and have accepted as canonical later compositions that are thought to bear the hallmark of inspired teaching. Such texts are designated as sūtras. In many of these compositions (for example, the Lotus Sūtra), the Buddha is depicted as giving the teaching in an atemporal heavenly paradise. Commentaries and treatises which are non-canonical are known as śāstras. On the composition of the Tibetan canon see Tenjur; Kanjur. On the Chinese canon see Taishō Canon; Chinese Tripiṭaka.

A rule of ecclesiastical law, primarily concerning the clergy, but also at times, embracing lay members of a congregation. A rule of construction; one of an aggregate of rules indicating the proper way to construe statutes, ordinances, etc. See 161 N.Y.S. 484, 487.

A professional canon is a rule or standard of conduct adopted by a professional group to guide or discipline the professional conduct of its members. The Canons of Professional Ethics were originally 32 in number and were adopted by the American Bar Association in 1908. A familiar Canon, Number Seven, provides that "A Lawyer Should Represent a Client Zealously Within the Bounds of the Law." See Model Rules of Professional Conduct.

In a literary sense, the authoritative works of a particular writer; also, an accepted list of works perceived to represent a cultural, ideological, historical, or biblical grouping.

Tutor's tip: A "cannon" is a weapon that fires heavy projectiles, a "canon" is a set of written documents that are authoritative, while a "canyon" or "canon" is a deep gorge.

Look up canon in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Not to be confused with Cannon.

Canon may refer to:

• Canon (fiction), material that is considered to be "genuine", or can be directly referenced as material produced by the original author or creator.
• Canon (company), a Japanese imaging and optical products corporation
• Canon (music), a contrapuntal composition which employs a melody with one or more imitations
  • Pachelbel's Canon
• Canon (priest), a Christian priest who belongs to one of certain chapters
• Canon (hymnography), a type of Eastern Orthodox hymn
• Canon (manga), a shōjo manga by Chika Shiomi
• Canon (game), an online Browser-based strategy war game
• Canon, Georgia, a city in Franklin County, Georgia, United States
• Cañon or canyon, a deep valley between cliffs

Canon may also be used for:

• Canon law
  • Canon law (Catholic Church)
  • Penitential canons
• Aesthetic canon
• Biblical canon
• Taoist canon or Daozang
• Pali Canon
• Chinese Buddhist Canon
• Tibetan Buddhist canon
• Chinese classic texts or Chinese canonical texts
• Canon of the Mass, the Eucharistic Prayer of the Roman Rite
• Western canon, the books, music, and art that have been the most influential in shaping Western culture
• The Canon of Medicine, a medical text written by Ibn Sina (Avicenna)
• Canon of Eclipses, a compilation eclipses by Theodor Ritter von Oppolzer
• Film canon, the limited number of masterpieces by which all other films are judged
• Canon (Sociology),an accepted principle or rule.

See also

• Canonization
• Cannon (disambiguation)
• Kanon (disambiguation)

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Dansk (Danish)
1.
n. - lov, norm, de kanoniske skrifter, kannik, kanon, kirkelov

idioms:

• canon law    kirkelov

2.
n. - kanon

Nederlands (Dutch)
canon, kanunnik, lijst authentieke literaire werken

Français (French)
1.
n. - canon (de l'église), canon (littér), (Mus) canon, (fig) canon, critère

idioms:

• canon law    droit canon

2.
n. - (Relig) chanoine

Deutsch (German)
1.
n. - Grundregel

idioms:

• canon law    kanonisches Recht

2.
n. - Kanon

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (θρησκ.) κανόνας, σύνολο εκκλησιαστικών ύμνων, (μουσ.) κανών, κανόνας, εφημέριος, αυθεντικός κανόνας ή κριτήριο, αυθεντικά άπαντα ενός συγγραφέα

idioms:

• canon law    (θρησκ.) κανονικό δίκαιο

Italiano (Italian)
canone

idioms:

• canon law    diritto canonico

Português (Portuguese)
n. - cânone (m), princípio (m) fundamental, cônego (m) (Ecles.), catálogo (m)

idioms:

• canon law    direito (m) canônico

Русский (Russian)
канон

idioms:

• canon law    каноническое право

Español (Spanish)
1.
n. - canon, norma

idioms:

• canon law    derecho canónico

2.
n. - miembro de cierta orden religiosa, canónigo

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - kyrkligt påbud, kanon

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
1. 教士团成员, 大学教堂牧师, 大教堂教士, 律修会修士

idioms:

• canon law    教会法, 寺院法, 教会法规

2. 教规, 正典, 经典圣经, 准则, 标准, 真作集, 真作目录

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
1.
n. - 教士團成員, 大學教堂牧師, 大教堂教士, 律修會修士

idioms:

• canon law    教會法, 寺院法, 教會法規

2.
n. - 教規, 正典, 經典聖經, 準則, 標準, 真作集, 真作目錄

한국어 (Korean)
1.
n. - 교회법, 규범, 음악의 전칙곡

2.
n. - 대성당 참사회 의원

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - カノン, 教会の法規, 規範, 規範集, ミサ典文, 正典, 真作品, キャノン, 司教座聖堂参事会員, 教会法

idioms:

• canon law    教会法

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) كاهن, شريعه, قانون كنائسي‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮עיקרון, קריטריון, קנון, חוקת הכנסייה, רשימת הקדושים, כתבי הקודש, כומר, קובץ או רשימה של יצירות ספרותיות הנחשבות לעיקריות, חלק טקס התפילה הקתולי הכולל את הקידוש‬
n. - ‮קנון, יצירה מוסיקלית שמבצעיה משמיעים, בזה אחר זה, אותו נושא מוסיקלי‬

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