coadjutor en · NOUN
Pronunciation
- /kəʊˈæd͡ʒʊtə/ (UK)
- /kəʊəˈd͡ʒuːtə/ (UK)
Etymology
From Middle English coadjutowre, from Old French coadjuteur, borrowed from Late Latin coadiūtōrem, from co- + adiūtor (“helper”), from adiuvō (“to help”) + -tor (agent suffix). By surface analysis, co- + adjutor. The French derivation gave the accentuation coˈadjutor (used by Samuel Taylor Coleridge), but the poets generally, since 1600, appear to have coaˈdjutor, after Latin. No Latin *coadiuvō or *coadiūtō is recorded, but in the modern languages words have been formed on these types, suggested by coadjutor.
Meanings
-
An assistant or helper.
Hitherto I have been but the witness, little more; and I should hardly think now to take another tone, that of your coadjutor, for the time, did I not perceive in you,—at the crisis too—a troubled hesitancy, proceeding, I doubt not, from the clash of military duty with moral scruple—scruple vitalized by compassion.
1924, Herman Melville, chapter 12, in Billy Budd, London: Constable & Co.:Then have the lady patronesses and their active coadjutors, whether noble or ignoble, all the work of beating up for recruits to go over again.
1842, [anonymous collaborator of Letitia Elizabeth Landon], chapter XXXVII, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 174:The mountaineer, with all his pulses aquiver, looked down into his coadjutor’s white, startled face.
1891, Mary Noailles Murfree, In the "Stranger People's" Country, Nebraska, published 2005, pages 206–7:
-
An assistant to a bishop.
August then appointed Prince George III of Anhalt (who was both a theologian and a priest as well as a prince) to be his coadjutor in spiritual matters.
2005, James Martin Estes, Peace, Order and the Glory of God:When old age rendered any Bishop unable to perform his duties, the first example of which occurs AD 211, when Alexander became coadjutor to Narcissus at Jerusalem
1842, John Henry Newman, The Ecclesiastical History of M. L'abbé Fleury:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| coadjutors | Number=Plur | lexicographic |
Deriveds
coadjutorship · coadjutress · bishop coadjutor · coadjutor bishop
Relateds
Translations (9)
ru коадъютор (assistant to a bishop) · es coadjutor (assistant to a bishop) · fr coadjuteur (assistant to a bishop) · sh koàdjūtor (assistant to a bishop) · id koajutor (assistant to a bishop) · ca coadjutor (assistant to a bishop) · sh коа̀дјӯтор (assistant to a bishop) · de Koadjutor (assistant to a bishop) · it coadiutore (assistant to a bishop)