Baal
From Fresh Dictionary
Part or all of this page has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster's Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
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English
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Etymology
Hebrew ×Ö¼×¢× (baâal, 'lord', 'master', 'owner').
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Proper Noun
Baal (plural: Baalim)
- (mythology) The supreme male divinity of the Phoenician and Canaanitish nations. The name of this god occurs in the Old Testament and elsewhere with qualifying epithets subjoined, answering to the different ideas of his character; as, Baal-berith, Baal-zebub, etc.
- The god of "rain, thunder and lightning."
- (plural) The whole class of divinities to whom the name Baal was applied. Judges X. 6.
- One of the fallen angels of Satan.
- A Mediterranean fertility deity whose worship was characterized by the extreme sexual acts of its subjects during periodic rituals, along with occasional human sacrifice and frequent temple prostitution, worshipped as far back as 14 B.C.