stewardship

Etymology

It is formed from English steward + -ship,^[2][3][4][5] first as steuardship and stewardshippe in Middle English.^[3][6] Steward is from Old English stigweard, also stīweard,^[2][7][8] from stig (“a house or part of a house, hall”) and weard (“keeper, guard”).^[2][7][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The office of a steward: 1465, in a record of household accounts.^[2] Etymonline dates it to the mid-15th century,^[3] and Merriam-Webster to the 15th century.^[6]

Semantic evolution

From 1526, in Tyndale's translation of the parable of the unjust steward in Luke 16, the word also meant the conduct of a steward's office: administration and management.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as the office of a steward, quoting Shakespeare's Richard II.^[9] In 1899 it took on a church sense: the responsible use of money, time and talents in the service of God,^[2][3] later also the organized pledging of money to a church.^[2] Merriam-Webster now records the general sense of careful, responsible management of something entrusted to one's care, as in the stewardship of natural resources.^[6]

Timeline

• 1465 – the office of a steward.^[2]
• 1526 – the conduct of a steward's office; administration, management.^[2]
• 1899 – in the churches, the responsible use of resources in the service of God.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one's care: the stewardship of the nation's forests.^[6][2]
2. The office or position of a steward, or the way it is carried out; administration.^[6][2][4]
3. (Christianity) The responsible use of money, time and talents in the service of God, including regular pledges to a church.^[2][3]

Related words

• steward
• stewardess
• sty
• ward

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.