Tradition

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: tra=di=tion

CIDE DICTIONARY

Tradition, n. [OE. tradicioun, L. traditio, from tradere to give up, transmit. See Treason, Traitor.].

•  The act of delivering into the hands of another; delivery.  Blackstone.  [1913 Webster]
•  The unwritten or oral delivery of information, opinions, doctrines, practices, rites, and customs, from father to son, or from ancestors to posterity; the transmission of any knowledge, opinions, or practice, from forefathers to descendants by oral communication, without written memorials.  [1913 Webster]
•  Hence, that which is transmitted orally from father to son, or from ancestors to posterity; knowledge or belief transmitted without the aid of written memorials; custom or practice long observed.  [1913 Webster]

  "Will you mock at an ancient tradition begun upon an honorable respect?"  [1913 Webster]

  "Naught but tradition remains of the beautiful village of Grand-Pré."  [1913 Webster]
•  An unwritten code of law represented to have been given by God to Moses on Sinai.  [1913 Webster]

  "Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered."  [1913 Webster]

  "Stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word or our epistle."  [1913 Webster]

Tradition Sunday (Eccl.), Palm Sunday; -- so called because the creed was then taught to candidates for baptism at Easter.

Tradition, v. t. 

 To transmit by way of tradition; to hand down.  [1913 Webster]
"The following story is . . . traditioned with very much credit amongst our English Catholics."  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Tradition, n.
1 a a custom, opinion, or belief handed down to posterity esp. orally or by practice. b this process of handing down.
2 esp. joc. an established practice or custom (it's a tradition to complain about the weather).
3 artistic, literary, etc. principles based on experience and practice; any one of these (stage tradition; traditions of the Dutch School).
4 Theol. doctrine or a particular doctrine etc. claimed to have divine authority without documentary evidence, esp.: a the oral teaching of Christ and the Apostles. b the laws held by the Pharisees to have been delivered by God to Moses. c the words and deeds of Muhammad not in the Koran.
5 Law the formal delivery of property etc.

Derivative

traditionary adj. traditionist n. traditionless adj.

Etymology

ME f. OF tradicion or L traditio f. tradere hand on, betray (as TRANS-, dare give)

THESAURUS

Tradition

Mishnah, Spiritus Mundi, Sunna, Talmud, ancient wisdom, archetypal myth, archetypal pattern, belief, birthright, bon ton, charm, common law, conformity, consuetude, convention, credo, creed, culture, custom, doctrine, established way, ethic, etiquette, faith, fashion, folk motif, folklore, folktale, folkway, form, habit, heritage, immemorial usage, institution, legend, lore, manner, manners, mores, myth, mythology, mythos, observance, orthodoxy, popular belief, practice, praxis, prescription, proper thing, racial memory, religion, religious belief, religious faith, rite, ritual, social convention, spell, standard behavior, standard usage, standing custom, superstition, superstitiousness, system of beliefs, teaching, theology, time-honored practice, traditionalism, traditionality, unwritten law, usage, use, way, what is done, wont, wonting

ROGET THESAURUS

Tradition

Description

N description, account, statement, report, expose, specification, particulars, state of facts, summary of facts, brief, return, catalogue raisonne, guidebook, delineation, sketch, monograph, minute account, detailed particular account, circumstantial account, graphic account, narration, recital, rehearsal, relation, historiography, chronography, historic Muse, Clio, history, biography, autobiography, necrology, obituary, narrative, history, memoir, memorials, annals, saga, tradition, legend, story, tale, historiette, personal narrative, journal, life, adventures, fortunes, experiences, confessions, anecdote, ana, trait, work of fiction, novel, romance, Minerva press, fairy tale, nursery tale, fable, parable, apologue, dime novel, penny dreadful, shilling shocker relator, raconteur, historian, biographer, fabulist, novelist, descriptive, graphic, narrative, epic, suggestive, well-drawn, historic, traditional, traditionary, legendary, anecdotic, storied, described, furor scribendi.

Oldness

N oldness, age, antiquity, cobwebs of antiquity, maturity, decline, decay, senility, seniority, eldership, primogeniture, archaism, thing of the past, relic of the past, megatherium, Sanskrit, tradition, prescription, custom, immemorial usage, common law, old, ancient, antique, of long standing, time-honored, venerable, elder, eldest, firstborn, prime, primitive, primeval, primigenous, paleolontological, paleontologic, paleoanthropological, paleoanthropic, paleolithic, primordial, primordinate, aboriginal, diluvian, antediluvian, protohistoric, prehistoric, antebellum, colonial, precolumbian, patriarchal, preadamite, paleocrystic, fossil, paleozoolical, paleozoic, preglacial, antemundane, archaic, classic, medieval, Pre-Raphaelite, ancestral, black-letter, immemorial, traditional, prescriptive, customary, whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contr, inveterate, rooted, antiquated, of other times, rococo, of the old school, after-age, obsolete, out of date, out of fashion, out of it, stale, old-fashioned, behind the age, old-world, exploded, gone out, gone by, passe, run out, senile, time worn, crumbling, secondhand, old as the hills, old as Methuselah, old as Adam, old as history, Archeozoic, Proterozoic, Paleozoic, Mesozoic, Cenozoic, Precambrian, Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Mississippian, Pennsylvanian, Permian, Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous, Tertiary, Paleogene, Neocene, Quaternary, Paleocene, Eocene, Oligocene, Miocene, Pliocene, Pleistocene, Recent, since the world was made, since the year one, since the days of Methuselah, vetera extollimus recentium incuriosi.