confessor
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English
Alternative forms
- confessour (obsolete)
Etymology
From Middle English confessor, confessour, from Anglo-Norman confessour, and its source, Latin cōnfessor, from cōnfiteor (“confess, admit, acknowledge”).
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /kənˈfɛsə/, /ˈkɒnfɛs(ɔ)ə/, /ˈkɒnfɛsɔː/
- (General American) IPA(key): /kənˈfɛsɚ/
- Rhymes: -ɛsə(ɹ)
Noun
confessor (plural confessors)
- One who confesses faith in Christianity in the face of persecution, but who is not martyred.
- 2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin, published 2010, page 174:
- Confessors provided the troubled Church with an alternative sort of authority based on their sufferings, particularly when arguments began about how and how much to forgive those Christians who had given way to imperial orders – the so-called ‘lapsed’.
- One who confesses to having done something wrong.
- (Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism) A priest who hears confession and then gives absolution
- 1994 October, Larry Gross, “Coming Out On the Soaps”, in Gay Community News, page 14:
- They do not feel connected to any gay/lesbian communities. Nor do they feel able to establish relationships with anyone who can support them. Thus an inexperienced but sincere young heterosexual actor can find himself playing not only role model but also confessor and phantom friend to people in great need.
Derived terms
Translations
one who confesses
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one who confesses faith in Christianity
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priest who hears confession
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References
Beccari, C. (1908) The Catholic Encyclopedia, New York: Robert Appleton Company, retrieved May 24, 2009, Confessor
Catalan
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Latin cōnfessōrem.
Pronunciation
Noun
confessor m (plural confessors, feminine confessora)
- (Christianity) confessor of the faith
- confessor (priest who hears confessions)
- Synonym: confés
Related terms
Further reading
- “confessor” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
Latin
Pronunciation
- (Classical Latin) IPA(key): /konˈfes.sor/,
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /konˈfes.sor/,
Noun
cōnfessor m (genitive cōnfessōris); third declension
Declension
Third-declension noun.
| singular | plural | |
|---|---|---|
| nominative | cōnfessor | cōnfessōrēs |
| genitive | cōnfessōris | cōnfessōrum |
| dative | cōnfessōrī | cōnfessōribus |
| accusative | cōnfessōrem | cōnfessōrēs |
| ablative | cōnfessōre | cōnfessōribus |
| vocative | cōnfessor | cōnfessōrēs |
Descendants
- Catalan: confessor
- English: confessor
- French: confesseur
- Italian: confessore
- Portuguese: confessor
- Spanish: confesor
References
- “confessor”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- confessor in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
Portuguese
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin cōnfessōrem.
Pronunciation
- Hyphenation: con‧fes‧sor
Noun
confessor m (plural confessores, feminine confessora, feminine plural confessoras)
- (religion) confessor (one who confesses faith in a religion, especially Christianity)
- (Roman Catholicism) confessor (priest who hears confession)
Spanish
Noun
confessor m (plural confessores)