missioner
(ˈmɪʃənə(r))
[f. mission + -er1.]
One sent on a mission, a missionary; esp. (in early use) a Jesuit missionary. In mod. use chiefly, one who conducts or is in charge of a parochial mission (in some dioceses, a permanent clerical officer).
| 1654 W. Mountague Devout Ess. ii. v. §3. 94 The missioners of France..seek to establish this practice in all places where they teach, that persons of all conditions, make some short address to God, at the striking of every clock. ? 1687 Dryden Let. to Sir G. Etherege 13 Like mighty missioner you come Ad Partes Infidelium. 1716 M. Davies Athen. Brit. II. 120 Other four were sent as itinerant Preachers and Missioners into all the Counties of England. 1771 Goldsm. Hist. Eng. I. 51 The pope enjoined his missioner to remove the pagan idols. 1849 Rock Ch. of Fathers I. iii. 274 The British style of..illumination..was carried by British missioners far to the north. 1862 H. Furniss Confession §xv. 16 One night during the Mission he went into the church. He stood near the platform where the missioner was preaching. 1894 Baring-Gould Deserts S. France II. 76 St. Fronto,..probably a missioner of the third century. 1896 19th Cent. Aug. 213 Our [the Jesuits'] position as theologians, missioners, preachers. |
† b. fig. (cf. missionary B. 1 b, 2.) Obs.
| 1687 Dryden Hind & P. ii. 565 Poems (1743) I. 285 Those are the Manufactures we export; And these the Missioners [1st ed. Missionaries] our zeal has made. 1751 Eliza Heywood Betsy Thoughtless II. 215 As every little circumstance..seems a missioner from fate. 1793 Burke On policy of Allies Wks. VII. 146 You will have a missioner of peace and order in every parish. |