Etymologically
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minister

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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
  • 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