[‘ Presence in more than one place at the same time; spec. as an attribute of saints.']
Pronunciation: Brit. /ˌplʊərɪˈprɛzns/, ˌplɔːrɪˈprɛzns, U.S. /ˌplʊrəˈprɛz(ə)ns/
Etymology: < pluri- comb. form + presence n., after omnipresence n.
Now rare.
Presence in more than one place at the same time; spec. as an attribute of saints.
1791 J. Boswell /Life Johnson/ anno 1773 I. 419 A. Toplady: ‘Does not their invocation of saints suppose omnipresence in the saints?’ Johnson: ‘No Sir; it supposes only pluripresence.’
1849 T. B. Macaulay /Hist. Eng./ I. iv. 496 What was more impolitic than to reject the services of good soldiers, seamen, lawyers, diplomatists, financiers, because they hold unsound opinions about the number of the sacraments or the pluripresence of saints?
1860 /Actress in High Life/ 369 Does he take you for a Popish saint, endowed with pluripresence, and able to be in Andalusia, at Badajoz, Elvas, and Alcantara, all at one time!
1865 W. E. H. Lecky /Hist. Rationalism/ I. i. 80 The miracle of trans~substantiation seems to destroy all the improbability of the pluri-presence of a human body.
1996 B. W. Aldiss in /Sci. Fiction/ Mar. 9 Pluripresence has been universally adopted without that conceptual questioning which was once a hallmark of good sf.