"apparitor" - Word of the Day from the OED

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apparitor

SECOND EDITION 1989

(pært(r))  Also 6-8 appar(r)iter, -our, appar(r)ator, -our, etc. See also aphet. PARITOR. [a. L. appritor (Fr. appariteur) an attendant, public servant, lictor, n. of agent f. apprre, in spec. sense ‘to appear as an attendant, wait upon’: see APPEAR.] 

    1. The servant or attendant of an officer or authority.    a. Rom. Antiq. A general name for the public servants of the Roman magistrates.

1533 BELLENDENE Livy II. (1822) 192 The consul..mon obey to all empire and change of tribunis, as he war bot ane serjand and apparatoure thareto. 1741 MIDDLETON Cicero I. iii. 155 Lictors, and Apparitors. 1781 GIBBON Decl. & F. II 36 Six hundred apparitors, who would be styled at present either secretaries, or clerks, or ushers, or messengers. 1853 KINGSLEY Hypatia xvi, The apparitors of Orestes, who followed in his robes of office.

    b. An officer of a civil court.

1593 NASHE 4 Lett. Confut. 17, I sawe him make an Apparriter..eate his Citation waxe and all. 1671 F. PHILIPPS Reg. Necess. 174 Sheriffs Apparitors or their Bayliffs. 1771 FRANKLIN Autobiog. Wks. 1840 I. 7 One of the children stood at the door to give notice if he saw the apparitor coming. 1824-9 LANDOR Imag. Conv. II. 6 The judges will hear reason, when the wand of the Apparitor is tipped with gold.

    c. An officer of an ecclesiastical court.

1528 TINDALE Obed. Chr. Man Wks. I. 238 The commissaries, and officials, with their somners and apparitors. 1641 MILTON Animadv. (1851) 230 With all the hell pestering rabble of Sumners and Apparitors. 1856 J. H. NEWMAN Callista 108 Seized by the apparitor, and hurried to the rack. 1875 FARRAR Christ II. lix. 344 The apparitors of the Jewish court.

    d. ‘Apparitor, or Apparitour, or Apparator, a beadle in an university, who carries the mace before the masters, and the faculties.’ Chambers Cycl. 1727. Also applied to other similar functionaries.

    2. gen. A herald, pursuivant, usher. lit. and fig.

1561 T. N[ORTON] Calvin's Inst. II. 133 He [John the Baptist] onely executeth the office of an apparitor. 1582 T. BENTLEY Mon. Matrons III. 328 Yee holie spirits, the apparitors of the Lords Maiestie. 1625 PURCHAS Pilgrims II. 1268 Jubilees, whereof Crusado's were Forerunners and Apparitors. 1650 USSHER Annals VI. (1658) 614 But suspected all apparitours, cryers, praisers, and friends.

    3. One who appears, an appearer. rare.

1843 CARLYLE Past & Pr. (1858) 211 The Higher Court..in which..every Human Soul is an apparitor.

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