Bible dictionaries

Extreme

What Bible dictionaries say about “Extreme”, one article after the other.

Easton’s Bible Dictionary & Webster’s 1828 Dictionary

Extreme - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

EXTRE'ME, a. [L. extremus, last.] Outermost; utmost; farthest; at the utmost point, edge or border; as the extreme verge or point of a thing.

1. Greatest; most violent; utmost; as extreme pain, grief, or suffering; extreme joy or pleasure.

2. Last; beyond which there is none; as an extreme remedy.

3. Utmost; worst or best that can exist or be supposed; as an extreme case.

4. Most pressing; as extreme necessity.

Extreme unction, among the Romanists, is the anointing of a sick person with oil, when decrepit with age or affected with some mortal disease, and usually just before death. It is applied to the eyes, ears, nostrils, mouth, hands, feet and reins of penitents, and is supposed to represent the grace of God poured into the soul.

Extreme and mean proportion, in geometry, is when a line is so divided, that the whole line is to the greater segment, as the segment is to the less; or when a line is so divided, that the rectangle under the whole line and the lesser segment is equal to the square of the greater segment.

EXTRE'ME, n. The utmost point or verge of a thing; that part which terminates a body; extremity.

1. Utmost point; furthest degree; as the extremes of heat and cold; the extremes of virtue and vice. Avoid extremes. Extremes naturally beget each other.

There is a natural progression from the extreme of anarchy to the extreme of tyranny.

2. In logic, the extremes or extreme terms of a syllogism are the predicate and subject. Thus, ""man is an animal: Peter is a man, therefore Peter is an animal;"" the word animal is the greater extreme, and man the medium.

3. In mathematics, the extremes are the first and last terms of a proportion; as, when three magnitudes are proportional, the rectangle contained by the extremes is equal contained by the extremes is equal to the square of the mean.

Matthew George Easton, Easton’s Bible Dictionary; Noah Webster, American Dictionary of the English Language (1828)

The article in Easton + Webster 1828

Easton’s Bible Dictionary & Webster’s 1828 Dictionary

Extremity - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

EXTREM'ITY, n. [L. extremitas.] The utmost point or side; the verge; the point or border that terminates a thing; as the extremities of a country.

1. The utmost parts. The extremities of the body, in painting and sculpture, are the head, hands and feet; but in anatomy, the term is applied to the limbs only.

2. The utmost point; the highest or furthest degree; as the extremity of pain or suffering; the extremity of cruelty. Even charity and forbearance may be carried to extremity.

3. Extreme or utmost distress, straits or difficulties; as a city besieged and reduced to extremity.

4. The utmost rigor or violence. The Greeks have endured oppression in its utmost extremity.

5. The most aggravated state.

The world is running after farce,the extremity of bad poetry.

Matthew George Easton, Easton’s Bible Dictionary; Noah Webster, American Dictionary of the English Language (1828)

The article in Easton + Webster 1828

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE 1915)

eks-trem', eks-trem'-i-ti We have the adjective "extreme" in /APC 2Esdras 5:14, "extreme fear," the Revised Version (British and American) "trembling"; in /APC Wisdom 12:27, "extreme (terma) damnation," the Revised Version (British and American) "the last end of condemnation"; in /APC 2Macc 7:42, "extreme (huperballousas) tortures," the Revised Version (British and American) "exceeding barbarities"; in Ecclesiasticus 42:8 it is used as an adverb, "the extreme aged" (eschatogeros), the Revised Version (British and American) "of extreme old age." Extremity: pash; Septuagint paraptoma, occurs only in Job 35:15 the King James Version, the Revised Version (British and American) "arrogance," and akme in /APC 2Macc 1:7.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia — James Orr, general editor and contributors; CrossWire SWORD module ISBE 2.2

The article in ISBE 1915