Dictionary:

canon¹

  (kăn'ən)

1. An ecclesiastical law or code of laws established by a church council.
2. A secular law, rule, or code of law.
3. 1. An established principle: the canons of polite society.
   2. A basis for judgment; a standard or criterion.
4. The books of the Bible officially accepted as Holy Scripture.
5. 1. A group of literary works that are generally accepted as representing a field: “the durable canon of American short fiction” (William Styron).
   2. The works of a writer that have been accepted as authentic: the entire Shakespeare canon.
6. Canon The part of the Mass beginning after the Preface and Sanctus and ending just before the Lord's Prayer.
7. The calendar of saints accepted by the Roman Catholic Church.
8. Music. A composition or passage in which a melody is imitated by one or more voices at fixed intervals of pitch and time.

[Middle English canoun, from Old English canon and from Old French, both from Latin canōn, rule, from Greek kanōn, measuring rod, rule.]

1. A member of a chapter of priests serving in a cathedral or collegiate church.
2. A member of certain religious communities living under a common rule and bound by vows.

[Middle English canoun, from Norman French canun, from Late Latin canōnicus, one living under a rule, from Latin canōn, rule. See canon¹.]

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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.

For more information on canon, visit Britannica.com.

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.

"Rule". In counterpoint, a melody that is repeated exactly by a different voice, entering a short interval after the original voice.

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.

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

For the word "Cannon", see Cannon (disambiguation).

For the company "Canon", see Canon (company).

Canon from Greek kanon "rule" (perhaps originally from kanna "reed", cognate to cane) is used in various meanings in fields of knowledge as diverse as literature, medicine, music and religion. It is usually used to refer to (in some sense of) "accepted" or "official" (official version, official meaning, etc.) with the adjective canonical being the form encountered as often than not.

Business

• Canon Inc., a Japanese corporation that specializes in imaging and optical products including consumer photographic cameras. (See the article for the origins of the name).

Literature

In literature, canon refers to a fixed collection of texts, such as:

• Western canon
• the Confucian canon of Chinese classic texts
• Canon (fiction), a body of works that are considered to be "genuine" or "official" within a certain fictional universe.
• The Canon of Medicine, a medical text written by Ibn Sina (Avicenna) which became the standard Latin translated text book on the subject.

Religion

Religious texts

Canon can refer to a group of texts considered authorative by a religous tradition:

• Buddhism - see Tripitaka (or Tipitaka)
• Christianity - see Biblical canon and Development of the Christian Biblical canon
• Hinduism - see Shruti texts
• Judaism - see Biblical canon and Jewish canon
• Mormonism - see Standard Works
• Taoism - see Taoist canon

Religious law

Canon can refer to a body of religious law:

• Christianity - all legislation adopted by an ecumenical council, most notably found in the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Churches and the Anglican Communion of churches - see Canon law
  • Canon law (Catholic Church), the canon law of the Roman Catholic Church specifically.
  • A specific body of such laws on a given subject, e.g. penitential canons.

• Islam - see Qanun and Shariah

Liturigal music

Canon can refer to a piece of music used by worshippers in a religious tradition.

• Christianity - see Canon (hymnography), a type of Eastern Orthodox hymn.

Other meanings in a religious context

• The canon of saints, see Canonization.
• Canon (priest), a Christian priest who belongs to one of certain chapters, from Latin canonicus.
• Canons Regular, a religious order of men who are usually priests who live in community.
• Canon of the Mass, the name in the Roman Missal for the prayer of consecration in the mass.
• another term for the altar cards containing certain eucharistic prayers.

Visual and Graphics Arts

• Artistic Canon, the classical proportions for drawing aesthetic figures.

Film & TV

• Film canon is the limited number of masterpieces by which all other films are judged.
• TV canon is an episode/scene that is necessary to the plot, opposed to filler which does not affect the plot.

Music

• Canon (music), a contrapuntal composition that employs a melody with one or more imitations; e.g. Johann Pachelbel's Canon in D Major.
• Kanun (Instrument), a stringed instrument also spelled as canon.

Other uses

• Canons was a country estate outside of London, named after the Duke of Chandos, where the current Canons Park is located.
• cannon - the large tubular firearm (obsolete spelling canon, ultimately also cognate to cane).

See also

• Canonization
• Cannon (disambiguation)

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

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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