sperichil

English

Noun

sperichil (plural sperichils)

  1. (rare, archaic) Alternative spelling of spiritual (“African-American Christian religious song”)
    • 1867 May 30, “The Magazines for June”, in The Nation‎[1], page 433:
      […] all stand up in the middle of the floor, and when the "sperichil" is struck up, begin first walking and by-and-by shuffling round, one after the other, in a ring.
    • 1877, John Russell Bartlett, Dictionary of Americanisms: A Glossary of Words and Phrases Usually Regarded as Peculiar to the United States‎[2], page 635:
      Sperichil. Among the Negroes, particularly of South Carolina and Georgia, spiritual, or spiritual shouting when at prayer, when all unite.
    • 1930, Guion Griffis Johnson, A Social History of the Sea Islands: With Special Reference to St. Helena Island, South Carolina‎[3], page 148:
      The praise meeting usually opened with a "sperichi" followed by a hymn which the leader "deaconed out" two lines at a time […]
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