sebastianism means the folkloric belief that King Sebastian of Portugal (1554–1578) will return from the dead to lead the Portuguese or Brazilian people as a messiah.
Why “sebastianism” is a great word
Sebastianism is the folkloric belief, originating in Portugal, that the vanished King Sebastian, lost in battle in 1578, will one day return as a messiah to lead his nation to glory. Borrowed from Portuguese sebastianismo, from the proper name Sebastian (referring to King Sebastian of Portugal) + the suffix -ism (denoting a system, principle, or ideological movement). Attested in English by 1812. Unlike general "messianism," which awaits an abstract savior, or theological "chiliasm," which anticipates a divine millennium, Sebastianism is a peculiarly national melancholy, a secular longing for a specific, lost king. It is the collective gaze upon an empty horizon, the patient preservation of a royal portrait in a peasant’s cottage, and the persistent hearing of royal trumpets in the sea-wind—the stubborn heart of a people refusing the finality of a death certificate.
Etymology
Borrowed from Portuguese sebastianismo. By surface analysis, Sebastian + ism.
noun
- The folkloric belief that King Sebastian of Portugal (1554–1578) will return from the dead to lead the Portuguese or Brazilian people as a messiah.e.g.“Sebastianism kept alive the spirit of independence in a country now brought under the sovereignty of the Spanish Crown.”
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- sebastianist 86% match — A believer in Sebastianism. vs sebastianism →
- salazarism 55% match — the politics of António de Oliveira Salazar (1889–1970), prime minister and dictator of Portugal from 1932 to 1968, specially the authoritarian ones. vs sebastianism →
- sebastomania 53% match — religious mania vs sebastianism →
- resurrectionism 50% match — Belief in, or the event of, a person being resurrected from the dead. vs sebastianism →
- sabbatianism 49% match — A Jewish messianic movement of the 17th century, centred around Sabbatai Zevi (1626–1676). vs sebastianism →
- regenerationism 49% match — An intellectual and political movement in late 19th and early 20th century Spain, seeking to make an objective scientific study of the causes of Spain's decline as a nation and to propose remedies. vs sebastianism →
- jacobitism 47% match — The political movement dedicated to the restoration of the Stuart kings to the thrones of England, Scotland, later the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the Kingdom of Ireland. vs sebastianism →
- martinism 46% match — A form of mystical and esoteric Christianity concerned with the fall of the first man, his state of material privation from his divine source, and the process of his return, influenced by Freemasonry. vs sebastianism →