tonsure

tonsure [Lat.,=to shave], formerly, practice in some Christian churches of cutting some of the hair from the scalp of clerics. In the West the tonsure consisted of a circular patch on the crown of the head from which the hair was kept cut; some tonsures kept the entire head shaved above the ears, and some retained a broad band of hair around the head. Different religious orders had different tonsures. In the 6th and 7th cent. one of the outstanding questions between the Celtic use and the Roman use was the tonsure, which the Celts made by cutting the hair off the front part of the head. The Roman Catholic Church abolished the practice of tonsure in 1972. See orders, holy .

tonsure a part of a monk's or priest's head left bare on top by shaving off the hair. In the Eastern church the whole head is shaven (the tonsure of St Paul), in the Roman Catholic Church, the tonsure consists of either a circular patch on the crown, or the whole upper part of the head so as to leave only a fringe or circle of hair (the tonsure of St Peter), and in the ancient Celtic Church, the head was shaved in the front of a line drawn from ear to ear (the tonsure of St John).

Recorded from late Middle English, the word comes from Old French or from Latin tonsura, from tondere ‘shear, clip’.

tonsure. The shaving of all or part of the head, traditionally a distinctive feature of monks and clerics in the RC Church. It has no place in the 1972 rite of Admission to Candidacy for Ordination of Deacons and Priests; monks now follow various customs in the matter.