Presbyter
/ˈprɛzbɪtər/noun
An elder or ordained minister in the early church, and in Presbyterian and Anglican usage a member of the second order of clergy.
The Greek roots
Literally: “the older one”
The story of the word
The word is a plain comparative, older, from πρέσβυς, an old man; the first Christian congregations picked their leaders by seniority and the title stuck. English then took the same Greek word twice. Once through Church Latin and Old English, worn down to preost and finally priest, and once again in the sixteenth century in its full form, for the elders of a reformed church that wanted no bishops. Milton saw the joke: "New Presbyter is but Old Priest writ Large."
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 16th century
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
In a sentence
Ignatius already distinguishes the bishop from the presbyters around him.
In this diocese the deacon is ordained presbyter after a year.