Recusants

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Individuals who resist participation in established religious practices and beliefs
2. Persons who defy imposed religious norms and maintain their own convictions
3. Those who do not attend prescribed church services as required by law or authorities

Etymology: "Recusants" is the plural of "recusant," and the singular has a sharp historical edge: in Tudor and Stuart England it named Catholics who refused to attend services of the Church of England. The Latin source, "recūsāns," comes from "recūsō," meaning to refuse, decline, or object, and English borrowed the term directly from Latin. The word is closely related to "recuse," which arrived in English through the same Latin verb but kept a legal sense of a judge declining to hear a case. The English usage carries the specific religious meaning that the Latin verb's general sense of protest made possible. Once the Church of England was established under Elizabeth I, those who stayed loyal to Rome and absented themselves from its services were labelled with this Latin word of refusal, and the term became the official name for them under the penal laws that followed.