magistrate
Pronunciation
- /ˈmæd͡ʒ.ɪˌstɹeɪt/, /ˈmæd͡ʒ.ɪ.stɹɪt/[1]
Etymology
It is inherited from Middle English magistrat,[2][3][4] borrowed from Latin magistrātus (“magistracy; a magistrate”),[5][6][7][8] perhaps through Old French magistrat.[9][3][10] The Latin noun first meant a magisterial rank or office and then the person holding it.[5][9][10] It is formed from magister (“master, chief”) with the suffix -ātus,[5][6][8] or, as Barnhart and Etymonline put it, from magistrō (“to serve as a magistrate, rule”).[9][10] The Latin magister is also the source of master and mister,[11][4] and the American Heritage Dictionary traces it to Proto-Indo-European *meǵh₂- (“great”).[3]
Earliest recorded meaning
The office or dignity of a magistrate: about 1380, in Chaucer's translation of Boethius.[9][5] The sense "a civil official who administers the laws" follows in 1384, in the Wycliffite Bible, for the magistrates of the people called together by Pilate.[2][9][5]
Semantic evolution
The sense "magistracy" died out at the end of the 16th century.[5][7] From 1594 a magistrate was also a civil officer with local judicial power, a justice of the peace,[5][8] and Etymonline notes that from the late 17th century the word often meant such a justice or another minor official with criminal jurisdiction.[10] Johnson (1755) defined it as a person invested with public authority, a governor, an executor of the laws.[12] In Scottish slang a Glasgow magistrate, or simply magistrate, was a herring, from about 1772.[5][13] In New Zealand the word was the former title of a district court judge.[14]
Timeline
- c. 1380 – the office of a magistrate (obsolete by 1596).[9][5]
- 1384 – a civil officer administering the laws.[9][5][2]
- 1594 – a civil officer with local judicial power; a justice of the peace.[5]
- 1623 – verb, to domineer (obsolete).[5]
- c. 1772 – in Scottish slang, a herring.[5]
Modern meaning
Noun
- A public official responsible for administering the law.
- A justice of the peace, or a judge presiding over a magistrates' court that hears minor cases: She appeared before the magistrates on a speeding charge.
- The head of the executive of a state, as in chief magistrate.
- (New Zealand, historical) A district court judge.
- (Scotland, slang) A herring.
Word family
- magistratical
- magistrateship
- magistracy
Related words
- master
- mister
- magisterial
References
- ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c 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)
- ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
- ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
- ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
- ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
- ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
- ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
- ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins