*quasi*

. A corporation consisting of a person or body of persons invested with some of the qualities of an artificial person, though not expressly incorporated, esp. the official of certain municipal divisions such as counties, schools districts, and the towns of some States of the United States, certain church officials, as a churchwarden, etc. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. [ So called from the first words of the Latin introit, quasi modo geniti infantes as newborn babes, 1 Pet. ii. 2. ] (R. C. Ch.) The first Sunday after Easter; Low Sunday. [ 1913 Webster ]

prop. n. (Fiction) The main character in Victor Hugo's novel “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”. The novel was first published in French under the title “Notre Dame de Paris”. Quasimodo is a deformed and ugly hunchback who is bellringer at the cathedral of Notre Dame during the reign of Louis XI. He rescues a gypsy girl Esmeralda, falsely convicted of a crime and about to be excuted, and carries her to sanctuary in the cathedral. Near the end of the book he dies while again rescuing her from an abductor. In a movie made in 1923 Quasimodo was portrayed by the actor Lon Chaney, whose impressive makeup and superb acting drew many plaudits. His shout of “Sanctuary! Sanctuary!” when rescuing Esmeralda is still sometimes imitated for humorous or dramatic effect. [ PJC ]