Dictionary

eldership en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈɛldɚʃɪp/
• ĕlʹdərshĭp

Etymology

From elder + -ship. The Lithuanian sense is a calque of Lithuanian seniūnija.

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) The position of being elder or senior; seniority, precedence of birth, primogeniture.
   • Her sister addressed her always by the word Child, with an air of eldership. 1754, Richardson, Grandison, volume I, chapter v, page 19:
   • Though Truth and Falsehood are as twins ally’d, There’s eldership on Truth’s delightful side. 1786, Thomas Parnell, The Poetical Works of Dr. Thomas Parnell:
   • [By Roman law] all children inherited their father’s estate in equal portions, without distinction of sex or eldership. 1838, Arnold, Hist. Rome, volume I, page 274:
   • Primogenitura, or eldership of birth, was greatly respected by God. 1549, R. Parsons, Confer. Success, volume I, chapter vi, page 128:
   • It followeth now to entreat how the world began to receive rule and government, which, while it had scarcity of people, underwent no other dominion than paternity and eldership. 1829, Walter Raleigh, The works of sir Walter Ralegh:
   • My claim to her by Eldership I prove. 1667, Dryden, Ind. Emperor, chapter i, page 11:
2. (as a mock title of honour, countable, nonce-word, uncountable) The personality of an elderly person.
   • But our most serious embarrassment, now that our good friend and co-laborer of the Zion’s Herald has spoken in defense of the presiding elders, would seem to be that we have done the abstract “elder” an injustice. If so we are sorry, and beg his eldership’s pardon. Still before receiving our sentence we desire to call attention to the fact that while speaking in the former address of the bishop and his cabinet this statement was made in compliment of presiding elders: — […] 1892, Luther Tracy Townsend, Clerical Politics in the Methodist Episcopal Church, McDonald, page 114:
   • The pilgrim answered that he sought admittance to the intent that he should be found of service. Whereat there brake forth exceeding much laughter; at the subsiding whereof one Shootbolt demanded whereabout should be his eldership’s age? 1843, Master Bernard M⸻ of S⸻, “The Smartists” (vision vii, pages 23–26), in A Dream of a Queen’s Reign, London: John Templeman, ccxlviii, regent street, page 24:
   • So irresistible to their elderships to be flattered. 1748, Richardson, Clarissa, volume IV, published 1811, page 90:
3. (countable, uncountable) The office or position of elder in a church.
   • The office of eldership is equallie distributed betweene the bishop and the minister. 1577, Harrison, England, II.v, published 1877, chapter i, page 109:
   • When I came first to Caulds I sought to prevail upon him to accept the eldership, but he aye put me by, and when I heard his tale I saw that he had done wisely. 1902, John Buchan, “The Outgoing of the Tide”, in The Watcher by the Threshold, and other tales:
   • He was deposed from his Eldership. 1655, Fuller, Ch. Hist., volume IX, chapter vi, § 52:
4. (countable, uncountable) The collective body of (ecclesiastical) elders; a body or court of elders, a presbytery.
   • They that tyrannize not over, but be subject to their particulare elderships. 1634–1646, Row, Hist. Kirk, published 1824, page 66:
   • All the courts of the Church might be called either Presbyteries or Elderships. 1885, Edgar, Old Ch. Life Scotl., page 189:
   • As office-bearers in the church we are an unholy and an unworthy eldership. 1828, E. Irving, Last Days, page 151:
   • That gyft, which was geuen thee by prophecie with the laying on of the handes, by the Eldership. 1557, “First Epistle to Timothy”, in New Testament, Geneva, chapter iv, verse 14:
   • Do you not lay in one scale the minister against the whole eldership in the other? 1721, Wodrow, Corr., volume II, published 1843, page 568:
5. (countable, uncountable) The smallest administrative division in Lithuania, equivalent to a ward.
   • The local governmental system in Lithuania has passed through several changes since the restoration of independence, and its future is still being debated. There are three levels of local government: apskritys (plural apskritis, usually translated as “counties”); municipalities; and elderates, sometimes given as elderships. 2010, Clive Carpenter, “Lithuania: Government”, in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland (World and its peoples. Europe; 8), New York: Marshall Cavendish, →ISBN, →LCCN, page 1,096/2:
   • Article 1 of the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania states that the State of Lithuania is an independent democratic republic. The territory of Lithuania is divided into ten counties. Countries^([sic]) are subdivided into sixty municipalities. Municipalities may be divided into elderships. 2022, Indrė Žvaigždinienė, “General Introduction: General Information” (chapter 1), in Environmental Law in Lithuania, 2nd edition, Alphen aan den Rijn: Kluwer Law International, →ISBN, unnumbered page:
   • Municipal councils can decide and divide municipalities into smaller administrative units called elderships. The activities of the eldership are financed from the municipal budget and are headed by an elder who is a career civil servant. There are currently 545 elderships in Lithuania (Šaparnienė et al., 2021). 2023 February, Katarína Vitálišová, Jaroslav Dvořák, “Differences and Similarities in Local Participative Governance in Slovakia and Lithuania”, in Gilles Rouet, Thierry Côme, editors, Participatory and Digital Democracy at the Local Level: European Discourses and Practices (Contributions to Political Science), Cham: Springer, →DOI, →ISBN, page 134:

Forms

Synonyms

elderate