Emily Dickinson Lexicon

A-DO'NISTS, n. [Heb. Ch. and Syr. אדון Adon; Lord, a scriptural title of the Supreme Being.]

Among critics, a sect or party who maintain that the Hebrew points ordinarily annexed to the consonants of the word Jehovah, are not the natural points belonging to that word, and that they do not express the true pronunciation of it; but that they are vowel points belonging to the words, Adonai and Elohim, applied to the ineffable name Jehovah, which the Jews were forbid to utter, and the true pronunciation of which was lost; they were therefore always to pronounce the word Adonai, instead of Jehovah. – Encyc.