hyperdulia

From Medieval Latin hyperdūlīa, from hyper-, from Ancient Greek ὑπέρ (hupér, “above”) + dulia, from Ancient Greek δουλεία (douleía, “slavery”), from δοῦλος (doûlos, “slave”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /hʌɪpəduːˈlʌɪə/

hyperdulia (usually uncountable, plural hyperdulias)

1. (Roman Catholicism) A level of veneration higher than dulia but less than latria, properly given to the Virgin Mary only.
   • 2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin 2010, p. 451:

     By the thirteenth century, the growth of devotion to Mary, the Mother of God, in both East and West led John of Damascus's admirer Thomas Aquinas to formalize a further refinement: the concept of an exceptional sort of veneration, hyperdulia, offered only to the greatest of God's creations, Mary, the mother of Jesus.

• dulia