[‘ Full assurance or certainty, esp. in relation to an article of religious faith or doctrine.']
Pronunciation: Brit. /plᵻˈrɒf(ə)ri/, U.S. /pləˈrɑfəri/
Forms: 15–16 *plerophorie*, 16– *plerophory*.
Etymology: < post-classical Latin /plerophoria/ assurance, certainty (c/1595 in a British source) and its etymon Hellenistic Greek /πληροϕορία fullness of assurance, certainty (New Testament: Hebrews 6:11, 10:22, etc.) < /πληροϕορεῖν/ to bring full measure, to satisfy fully ( < /πληρο-, combining form (compare -o- connective) of ancient Greek /πλήρης full, satisfied (see plereme n.) + ancient Greek /ϕορείν/ to bear constantly: see -phoresis comb. form) + /-ία/ -y suffix3.
orig. and chiefly Theol.
Full assurance or certainty, esp. in relation to an article of religious faith or doctrine.
1598 H. Clapham /Syn against Holy Ghoste/ sig. Aivv, A particular plerophorie or full assurance of our reconcilation with God.
1605 A. Wotton /Answere Popish Pamphlet/ 90 Not one of many thousands attaines to that plerophorie or full perswasion.
1647 J. Trapp /Comm. Epist. & Rev./ (1 Tim. iii. 13) The peace of a good conscience, and the plerophory of faith.
/a/1714 B. Tompson /Poems/ (1980) 137 When Wilson, that Plerophory of Love, Did from our Banks, up to his Center move.
1745 J. Wesley /Answer to Church/ 22 The other is, such a Plerophory or full Assurance that I am forgiven, and so clear a Perception, that Christ abideth in me; as utterly excludes all Doubt and Fear.
1870 E. Thomson /Our Oriental Missions/ I. 137 They have characteristics which if sanctified would enable them to enjoy the plerophory of grace.
1893 F. Hall in /Nation (N.Y.)/ 13 Apr. 275/2 To forbear, in some measure, that plerophory of cocksureness with which he habitually dogmatizes.
1923 E. Wallace /Captains of Souls/ iii. viii. 223 So far, her assurance, her complete plerophory of Ronnie’s wisdom rested in the realms of untested theory.
1995 W. A. Senior /S. R. Donaldson’s Chrons. Thomas Covenant/ vi. 164 As the unperceivable, unknowable, undefinable, death defies rational explanation or scientific plerophory and demands intuitive or metaphysical explanations.