confessor

Forms

cōnfessor m (genitive cōnfessōris); third declension^[1] Medieval spellings include cunfessor, comfessor, confesor and confessur.^[2]

Etymology

It is an agent noun formed on the past participle stem ⟨cōnfess-⟩ of cōnfiteor (“to acknowledge, confess”).^[3][4][5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL's first citations are from Tertullian, who sets the cōnfessōrēs of Christ against those who deny him: Christ “will confess the one who confesses him and deny the one who denies him”.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

In the Church of the persecutions it named one who openly professed the faith, as opposed to the negātor who denied it.^[3][7][4] Cyprian addresses a letter to the martyrs and confessors, and Optatus writes of a persecution that made some martyrs and others confessors;^[3] Lewis & Short and Stelten also give the sense “martyr”.^[7][8][1] The usual meaning became one who had suffered for the faith without dying for it,^[9][6] and later a saint honoured as a confessor rather than a martyr, often a bishop: Sidonius Apollinaris writes of Martin, bishop and confessor.^[3][10][11] Medieval calendars kept feasts of martyrs and of confessors,^[2] and Hrabanus explains in a homily that martyrēs is Greek for witnesses while cōnfessōrēs in Latin means those who praise.^[2] Augustine also used it of one who confesses his sins,^[3] and in a profane sense it was one who admits a crime.^[3][9]

From the 9th century it also meant the priest who hears confession, the father confessor:^[2][6][10] Walahfrid Strabo speaks of the confessor of the brothers, and capitularies require penitents to keep the penance their confessor imposed.^[2][12] Caesarius of Heisterbach notes that the pope himself is under the authority of his confessor.^[2] In Spain it was also a title of monks,^[12][10] and it named cantors and psalmists in the lower clergy.^[12] English confessor took the sense of one who avows his faith in late Old English and that of one who hears confessions in the mid-14th century.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian sets the confessors of Christ against those who deny him.^[3][5]
• beginning of 3rd century–258 AD – Cyprian writes to the martyrs and confessors.^[3][5]
• 366/367 AD – Optatus distinguishes those made martyrs from those made confessors.^[3][5]
• c. 431–486 AD – Sidonius Apollinaris calls Martin bishop and confessor.^[3][7][5]
• 2nd quarter of the 9th century – Walahfrid Strabo uses it of a father confessor.^[2][12][5]
• late Old English – English confessor is taken from it.^[6]
• mid-14th century – English confessor comes to mean one who hears confessions.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Ecclesiastical Latin) One who openly professes the Christian faith, especially under persecution; a confessor of the faith.^{[3][7][4][13][1]}
2. (Ecclesiastical Latin) A martyr.^[7][8][1]
3. (Ecclesiastical Latin) A saint honoured as a confessor, not a martyr.^{[10][2][11][14]}
4. (Late Latin) One who confesses his sins or admits a crime.^[3][9][2]
5. (Medieval Latin) A priest who hears confession; a father confessor.^{[10][2][15][12][16][14]}
6. (Medieval Latin) A monk; one who has taken monastic vows.^[10][12]

Word family

• confessōrius

Related words

• cōnfiteor
• cōnfessiō
• English confessor

Usage notes

Etymonline notes that the priest who hears confession would properly be cōnfessārius, but cōnfessor was used in this sense from the 9th century.^[6] Its opposite in early Christian writers is negātor “denier”.^[3][7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
9. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
10. ^ a b c d e f Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
11. ^ a b Latinitatis medii aevi lexicon Bohemorum / Slovník středověké latiny v českých zemích (1977–), Prague: Academia; electronic version, Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences
12. ^ a b c d e f du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
13. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
14. ^ a b Lexicon mediae et infimae Latinitatis Polonorum (1953–), Kraków: Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN; electronic ed. elexicon.scriptores.pl
15. ^ Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
16. ^ Bartal, Antal, et al. (1987–), Lexicon Latinitatis Medii Aevi Hungariae, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó; online ed. ELTE