Faith & RitualGreek → English
Archdeacon
/ˌɑrtʃˈdiːkən/noun
A senior cleric who administers part of a diocese under the bishop.
The Greek roots
ἀρχι-
archi-
chief, first
διάκονος
diákonos
servant, attendant
Literally: “chief servant”
The story of the word
διάκονος meant an attendant, close to a waiter, and the office in Acts begins with distributing food to widows so that the apostles could keep preaching. The chief of them ended up running a bishop's practical business, which is how a word for table service became a title with authority over property and discipline. Old English borrowed it early as arcediacon, straight from Church Latin. The same ἀρχι- heads archbishop, architect, chief builder, and archangel.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Late Latin → Old English
- First recorded
- Old English
Same family
deaconarchbishoparchitectarchangel
In a sentence
The archdeacon inspects the parish accounts and the state of the roof.
Trollope's archdeacon cares far more about the living than about the sermon.