[‘ A spiritual or psychological protection or defence; an attitude, etc., affording such protection.']
Pronunciation: Brit. /ˈpanəpli/, U.S. /ˈpænəpli/
Forms: 15–16 *panoplie*, 16– *panoply*.
Origin:Of multiple origins. Partly a borrowing from Latin. Partly a borrowing from Greek. Etymons: Latin panoplia; Greek πανοπλία.
Etymology: < (i) post-classical Latin /panoplia/ (a/1536 in Erasmus, in fig. use) and its etymon (ii) ancient Greek /πανοπλία a complete suit of armour, the full armour of the hoplite (in Hellenistic Greek also in fig. use in the New Testament: see sense 1) < /πάνοπλος/ in full armour ( < /παν-* pan- comb. form + /ὅπλα* (plural) arms: see hoplo- comb. form) + *-ία/ -y suffix3. Compare French /panoplie* (1551; 1743 in fig. use). Compare panoplia n.
*1.* A spiritual or psychological protection or defence; an attitude, etc., affording such protection.
Freq. with allusion to Ephesians 6:11, 13 (after Hellenistic Greek την πανοπλίαν τοῦ Θεοῦ the whole armour of God).
1576 A. Fleming(title) A panoplie of epistles, or, a looking glasse for the vnlearned.
1613 W. Leighton /Teares or Lament./ xxxix. 83 Make strong my faith, & hope lord giue me,..Be my defence and panoplie, and guide me safe to thy election.
1650 S. Clarke /Marrow Eccl. Hist./(1654) i. 4 Patience is the Panoply or whole Armour of the man of God.
1662 W. Gurnall /Christian in Armour: 3rd Pt./ 1 These words present us with another Piece in the Christians Panoply.
/a/1745 T. Warton /Poems Several Occasions/(1748) 113 What triple Panoply, my Friend, From Beauty’s Darts can Souls defend?
1759 W. Mason /Caractacus/ 62 Virtue arms our soul, and ‘gainst that panoply What ‘vails the rage of robbers?
1785 W. Cowper /Task/ ii. 345 Armed himself in panoply complete Of heavenly temper.
1854 J. S. C. Abbott /Napoleon/(1855) II. xxv. 464 Napoleon was armed with the panoply of popular rights.
1884 Tennyson /Becket/ v. ii. 195 Mail’d in the perfect panoply of faith.
/a/1923 H. Trench /Poems/(1924) II. 148, I sleep. The panoply of sense, The buffetings, the din,..the battle dense,..Cease.
1990 /Ess. in Crit./ *40* 348 A ‘virtuous indignation’ hammered out through teaching and publication into a panoply affords a good degree of protection.
*2.*
*a.* Full armour; a complete suit of armour. Freq. with connotations of brightness and splendour. Now rare.
a/1637 B. Jonson /Magnetick Lady/ iii. iv. 81 in /Wks./(1640) III, /Iron… More..Then all your fury, and the Panoplie. Prac. (Which is at best, but a thin linnen armour.) I thinke a cup of generous wine were better, Then fighting i’your shirts.
1667 Milton /Paradise Lost/ vi. 760 Hee in Celestial Panoplie all armd.
1750 Johnson /Rambler/ No. 78. ⁋1 Encumbered and oppressed, as he will find himself, with the ancient panoply.
1768 H. Downman /Land of Muses/ 39 The thunder of his rapid car, His spear, and brazen panoply.
1813 Scott /Bridal of Triermain/ ii. xix. 83 As all around the lists so wide In panoply the champions ride.
1867 E. A. Freeman /Hist. Norman Conquest/ I. vi. 577 Armed in the most magnificent shape of the full panoply of the time.
1881 B. Jowett tr. Thucydides /Hist. Peloponnesian War/ I. 243 Three hundred panoplies which were allotted to Demosthenes he brought home with him.
1925 G. K. Chesterton /Everlasting Man/ i. vii. 165 The gigantic Gauls with their barbaric panoply.
2000 /Contra Costa (Calif.) Times/(Nexis) 9 Oct. a15 One of the graves revealed a complete set of a Thracian warrior’s panoply.
*b.* In extended use: any complete covering or protective layer.
1789 E. Darwin /Bot. Garden: Pt. II/ ii. 147 Amphibious Nymph, from Nile’s prolific bed Emerging Trapa lifts her pearly head; Fair glows her virgin cheek and modest breast, A panoply of scales deforms the rest.
1832 R. Lander & J. Lander /Jrnl. Exped. Niger/ III. xvii. 57 Another charm..a panoply, for preserving all persons, while bathing, from the fangs of the crocodiles.
1856 E. K. Kane /Arctic Explor./ II. i. 22 His many-coated panoply against King Death.
1867 L. M. Child /Romance of Republic/ xxxv. 400 Mist..as it grew colder, had settled on the trees..covering every little twig with a panoply of ice.
1958 L. de Wohl /Francis of Assissi/(1960) xiii. 108 There was room left only on the dais, where the bishop would be sitting under a panoply with a canon on either side.
1995 /New Yorker/ 27 Mar. 92/1 The clouds..are gray as lead, a sombre panoply pegged out against a blue that’s almost lost.
*3.*
*a.* A splendid or impressive array; fine or magnificent display; splendour; pomp. Also: splendid attire.
1790 A. Francis /Misc. Poems/ 54 Lo! beamy Hope, descends from heaven, In native glory bright! Deck’d in the panoply of love..She radiates on the sight!
1829 E. Bulwer-Lytton /Devereux/ II. iv. iii. 166 What a panoply of smiles the duchess wears to-night.
1872 H. I. Jenkinson /Guide Eng. Lake District/(1879) 278 The two lakes, Buttermere and Crummock,..surrounded by a grand panoply of mountains.
/a/1902 F. Norris /Pit/(1903) i. 35 She had first met this man haughtily, in all the panoply of her ‘grand manner’.
1957 /Economist/ 21 Sept. 912/2 The panoply of police cars, blue lights and motorised outriders with which the Chancellor chooses to move about.
1991 J. Litten /Eng. Way of Death/(BNC) 9 The livery companies..undertook to provide all that was customary for the performance of the obsequies of their deceased members, the street processions often reflecting in size and panoply the funerals of the nobility.
*b.* /fig./ A full or extensive array of resources; a wide range or array (of).
1906 /Daily Chron./ 19 Sept. 4/4 The dress-improver and even the ‘straight-front’ were in the panoply of the society dame of nineteen centuries ago.
1939 /Fortune/ Nov. 14/1 (advt.) Our new gift book ‘F’ presents a thrilling panoply of suggestions designed to help you choose handsome appropriate gifts.
1952 A. Bevan /In Place of Fear/ iii. 39, I am speaking of the full panoply of political democracy which includes these liberties and others besides.
2003 /Time Out N.Y./ 27 Feb. 22/2 Rosacea can cause a panoply of problems.
†*4.* A group of pieces of armour arranged as a trophy or ornament. Obs.
1890 /Cent. Dict./, /Panoply/, a group or assemblage of pieces of defensive armor, with or without weapons, arranged as a sort of trophy.
1896 /Daily News/ 5 Mar. 7/5 Some Russian shields, serving as panoplies, were added to the French shields.