late 13c., person (late 12c. as a surname), “parish priest” (later often applied to a clergyman in general), from Anglo-French and Old French persone “curate, parson, holder of Church office” (12c.), from Medieval Latin persona “parson” (see person). The reason for the ecclesiastical use is obscure; it might refer to the “person” legally holding church property, or it may be an abbreviation of persona ecclesiae “person of the church.” The shift to a spelling with -a- begins late 13c. in surnames. Related: Parsonic. Parson’s nose “the rump of a fowl” is attested by 1834.
“house for a parson,” late 15c.,from Old French personage and directly from Medieval Latin personagium; see parson + -age. Earlier it meant “benefice of a parson” (late 14c.).
“supreme military commander,” 1620s, from Italian generalissimo, superlative of generale, from a sense development similar to French general (see general (n.)). Parson Weems applied it to George Washington. In 20c. use sometimes from Spanish generalísimo in reference to the military dictator Franco.
type of terrier (not recognized as a distinct breed), 1907, named for the Rev. John Russell (1795-1883) of Devonshire, “the sporting parson.”
1771, “the total of the animal life of a certain region or time, from Late Latin Fauna, a rustic Roman fertility goddess who was wife, sister, or daughter (or some combination) of Faunus (see faun).
Popularized by Linnaeus, who adopted it as a companion word to flora and used it in the title of his 1746 catalogue of the animals of Sweden, “Fauna Suecica.” First used in English by Gilbert White (1720-1793) the parson-naturalist.
“the act of disinterring that which has been buried,” especially a dead body, 1670s, probably via French exhumation, from Medieval Latin exhumationem (nominative exhumatio), noun of action from past-participle stem of exhumare “to unearth” (see exhume). In earliest use often in a French context.
In France, the exhumation of a dead body is order’d, upon proof that he was killed in a duel.—By the French laws, a parson has a right to demand the exhumation of the body of one of his parishioners, when interred out of the parish without his consent. [Chambers’ “Cyclopaedia,” 1741]
“one who hinders enjoyment,” 1786, from the verbal phrase (attested by 1711) in reference to one who “ruins” the “fun;” see spoil (v.) + sport (n.). Compare Chaucer’s letgame “hinderer of pleasure” (late 14c.), with obsolete verb let “hinder, prevent, stop” (see let (n.)). Another old word for it was addle-plot “person who spoils any amusement” (1690s; see addle). Also compare spoil-paper (n.) “petty author, scribbler” (1610s). Grose (1788) has spoil pudding (n.), “A parson who preaches long sermons, keeping his congregation in church till the puddings are over done.”
early 14c., from Anglo-French vicare, Old French vicaire “deputy, second in command,” also in the ecclesiastical sense (12c.), from Latin vicarius “a substitute, deputy, proxy,” noun use of adjective vicarius “substituted, delegated,” from vicis “change, interchange, succession; a place, position” (from PIE root *weik- (2) “to bend, to wind”). The original notion is of “earthly representative of God or Christ;” but also used in sense of “person acting as parish priest in place of a real parson” (early 14c.).
The original Vicar of Bray (in figurative use from 1660s) seems to have been Simon Allen, who held the benefice from c. 1540 to 1588, thus serving from the time of Henry VIII to Elizabeth I, being twice a Catholic and twice a Protestant but always vicar of Bray. The village is near Maidenhead in Berkshire.
late 14c. as a term of reproach for a corrupt or lax prelate, from the Roman surname, especially that of Pontius Pilate, a governor of the Roman province of Judaea under Tiberius, from Latin Pilatus, literally “armed with javelins,” from pilum “javelin” (see pile (n.2)).
Other than having presided over the trial of Jesus and ordering his crucifixion, little is known of him. In Middle English pilates vois was “a loud, boastful voice,” of the sort used by Pilate in the mystery plays. Among slang and cant uses of Pontius Pilate mentioned in the 1811 “Dictionary of Buckish Slang, University Wit and Pickpocket Eloquence” is “(Cambridge) a Mr. Shepherd of Trinity College; who disputing with a brother parson on the comparative rapidity with which they read the liturgy, offered to give him as far as Pontius Pilate in the Belief.”
Welsh rabbit, also in early use Welch rabbit, “dish of toast and cheese” is from 1724, also perverted by folk-etymology as Welsh rarebit (1785). The name is often said to be from a joke that the Welsh are too poor to afford wild rabbit, but the existence of Scotch rabbit (1743) and English rabbit (1747) suggests otherwise. Perhaps a corruption of ramekin, a similar dish, taken for mock-Welsh -kin suffix. A stereotype that the Welsh are inordinately fond of toasted cheese dates back at least to Shakespeare’s time.
Ile sooner trust an Irishman with my
Aquauita bottle, Sir Hu our parson [the Welch knight] with my cheese,
A theefe to walk my ambling gelding, then my wife
With her selfe
[William Shakespeare, “A most pleasaunt and excellent conceited comedie, of Syr Iohn Falstaffe, and the merrie wiues of Windsor.” 1602.]
Source: O
etymonline.com
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