- advent
- "important arrival," 1742, an extended sense of Advent "season before Christmas" (O.E.), from L. adventus "arrival," from pp. stem of advenire "arrive, come to," from ad- "to" + venire "to come" (see venue). Applied in Church L. to the coming of the Savior, either the first or the anticipated second, hence Adventist, a name applied to millenarian sects, esp. the Millerites (U.S., 1843). In Eng., also sometimes extended to the Pentecost.