censer

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English censer, also senser,^[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman censer, also senser,^[4][5] and Old French censier,^[6][7][8][3] a shortened form of encensier,^[6][7][5] recorded in Anglo-Norman as encenser from the first third of the 12th century.^[9] The French noun comes from encens (“incense”),^{[7][8][5][10]} which goes back to Late Latin incēnsum,^[8][3] literally "that which is burnt", the neuter past participle of Latin incendō (“to set fire to, burn”).^[11] Klein, Skeat, the OED and Merriam-Webster place Medieval Latin incēnsārium between them,^{[11][12][6][3]} a Latin type that the OED notes beside incēnsōrium, the source of French encensoir.^[6][12] The OED adds that in English the word would coincide with an agent noun from the verb cense.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A vessel in which incense is burnt: before 1250, in the Meid Maregrete;^[6] about 1250 in Barnhart,^[13][8] and before 1275 in the Middle English Dictionary's first quotation, also from the life of St Margaret.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Chaucer's Absolon in the Miller's Tale goes out on the holiday with a censer,^[2] and Trevisa, before 1398, describes one as a vessel of brass, silver or gold, closed below and open above with many holes.^[2] A looser use in Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 2 (1600) seems to mean a perfume burner, though commentators differ;^[6][5] Johnson (1755) quotes the line "like to a censer in a barber's shop" from The Taming of the Shrew.^[14] In 1625 Purchas used it as a verb for "to cense", the only record,^[6] and in 1670 it was applied to a person who perfumes with incense.^[6]

Timeline

• before 1250 – a vessel for burning incense.^[6]
• 1600 – apparently a perfume burner, in Shakespeare.^[6][5]
• 1625 – verb, to burn incense to, in Purchas (obsolete).^[6]
• 1670 – a person who perfumes with incense.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A vessel for burning incense, especially a covered one swung on chains during a religious service; a thurible: The deacon swung the censer before the altar.^[15][3][6]
2. (obsolete) A perfume burner; a cassolette.^[6][5]

Related words

• incense
• cense
• censor
• sensor

Usage notes

The OED and the Middle English Dictionary list a separate and obsolete censer, a person who pays or levies a tax called a cense, recorded from 1458 to 1729.^[6][2] The Middle English Dictionary also has a single censer for a bolter or sifter, of unknown origin.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins