minister

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˈmɪn.ɪ.stə/, US /ˈmɪn.ɪ.stɚ/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English ministre, borrowed from Old French ministre (“servant”), also menistre “servant, household officer, minstrel”,^[2][3][4] and directly borrowed from Latin minister (“servant, attendant; priest's assistant”),^[2][3] from minus (“less”), hence “subordinate”,^[2][3][5][6] with the comparative suffix *-teros,^[2][7] on the model of magister, the source of master.^[2][3][6] The root is Proto-Indo-European *mei- (“small”).^[2][4] In Medieval and Late Latin minister also meant a priest, a sense taken directly into Middle English.^[3] The verb is Middle English ministren, from Old French ministrer and Latin ministrāre (“to serve”).^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

One who acts under the authority of another, an agent: about 1290;^[8] a clergyman about 1300.^[3][2] A servant or attendant is from about 1325^[3] or 1375.^[8]

Semantic evolution

An officer administering the law is from about 1386.^[8] The verb, “to perform religious rites”, is from the early 14th century,^[2] before 1338 in Mannyng,^[3] “to serve food or drink” from the mid-14th century,^[2] and “to give aid or remedy”, as in minister to the sick, from the late 14th century.^[2] A minister of state, appointed by the head of a state to run a department, is from 1625,^[8] the 17th century in Hoad,^[9] and a diplomatic envoy from one country to another from 1709.^[8] Ministerial is from 1561.^[3] Etymonline contrasts minister, which sees a clergyman as serving a church, with pastor, which sees him as caring for a flock.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1290 – an agent.^[8]
• c. 1300 – a clergyman.^[3][2]
• early 14th century – verb, to perform religious rites.^[2]
• c. 1375 – a servant.^[8]
• 1561 – ministerial.^[3]
• 1625 – a minister of state.^[8]
• 1709 – a diplomatic envoy.^[8]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A member of the clergy, especially in a Protestant church.
2. A person in charge of a government department.
3. A diplomat ranking below an ambassador.
4. (archaic) A person who acts for another; an agent or servant.

Verb

1. To attend to the needs of: minister to the sick.
2. To serve as a member of the clergy.

Word family

• ministration
• subminister
• underminister
• unministered
• cabinet minister
• foreign minister
• minister without portfolio
• prime minister

Related words

• ministerial
• ministerium
• ministry
• administer
• minstrel
• master
• minus
• minor

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
5. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press