coadjutor
(kəʊəˈdʒ(j)uːtə(r), kəʊˈædʒ-)
Also 5 coadiutowre, 6–7 coadiutour, -or, coadjutour, 7 coaiutor, coajutor.
[a. OF. coadjuteur (in AngloFr. -our), ad. L. coadjūtor, -ōrem, f. co- + adjūtor helper, agent-n. f. adjuvāre to help. The French derivation gave the accentuation coˈadjutor, which is used by Coleridge; but the poets generally, since 1600, appear to have coaˈdjutor, after Latin.
No L. *coadjuvāre, or *coadjūtāre is recorded, but in the mod. langs. words have been formed on these types, suggested by coadjutor.]
1. One who works with and helps another; a helper, assistant, fellow-helper.
| c 1430 Pilgr. Lyf Manhode i. xxi. (1869) 15 Ministres and serueres to him..and coadiutowres. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 19 The coadiutours and helpers of god. a 1619 M. Fotherby Atheom. (1622) Pref. 5 Euery one a coadiutor to the worke of all the other. 1635 Quarles Embl., Hieroglyph iv. (1718) 329 Nature knows her own perfection..And she scorns a co-adjutor. 1741 Warburton Div. Legat. II. 33 His Coadjutors, Counsellors and Instructors. 1856 Froude Hist. Eng. I. 299 In this undertaking she was speedily provided with an efficient coadjutor. |
2. spec. Eccl. One appointed to assist a bishop or other ecclesiastic.
A coadjutor is appointed as assistant and successor to an old and infirm bishop; and is thus distinct from a suffragan, who has charge of a definite portion of a large diocese.
| 1549 Latimer Serm. bef. Edw. VI, v. (Arb.) 135 Samuell..sette hys twoo sonnes in offyce wyth hym, as hys suffraganes, and as hys Coadiutoures. Here I myght take occasion to treate what olde and impotente Byshoppes should do. a 1691 T. Barlow Rem. (1693) 161 For a Bishop to have a Co-adjutor, or (as the Statute calls him) a Suffragan to assist him. 1709 Steele Tatler No. 10 ¶9 The Archbishop of Saltzburg is dead, who is succeeded by Count Harrach, formerly Bishop of Vienna, and for these last Three Years Coadjutor to the said Archbishop. 1726 Ayliffe Parerg. 161 If a Minister..becomes Dumb or Blind after Induction..the Bishop..shall allow him a Co-adjutor. 1845 Stephen Laws Eng. II. 669. 1863 Kirk Chas. Bold (1868) III. iv. x. 264 Coadjutor of the diocese of Grenoble. |