▪ I. dean1
(diːn)
Forms: 4–5 dene, deen(e, den, 5 deyn(e (dyen), 6 Sc. dane, 5–7 deane, 7– dean.
[ME. deen, dēn, a. OF. deien, dien. mod.F. doyen = Sp. and It. decano, Pg. deão, Cat. degá:—L. decān-um one set over ten (cf. Exod. xviii. 21 Vulg.), also Gr. δεκᾱνός, explained from δέκα, dec-em ten.
Whether viewed as Gr. or L., the form of the word offers difficulties. In both languages, it had also an early astrological sense, ‘the chief of ten parts, or of ten degrees, of a zodiacal sign’: see decan. Salmasius, De annis climactericis et antiqua Astrologia (Leyden, 1648), considers this the original sense, and holds it to be a term of oriental astrology, which was merely assimilated to δέκα, decem, in Gr. and L. As a military term, the Gr. derivative δεκανία occurs = L. decuria, in the Tactica of ælian and of Arrian (both c. 120); the L. decanus occurs in Vegetius De Re Militari c. 386. The word is then used by Jerome c 400 in his translation of Exodus xviii. 21, 25, where the Old Latin had decurio; and about the same time the monastic use (sense 3 below) appears in Cod. Theodos. xvi. 5. 30, and Cassian's Instit. iv. 10. In later times of the empire it was applied to various civil functionaries. From these monastic and civil uses come all the modern senses of dean.]
† 1. Representing various uses of late L. decānus: A head, chief, or commander of a division of ten.
| 1388 Wyclif Ex. xviii. 21 Ordeyne thou of hem tribunes, and centuriouns, and quinquagenaries, and deenys [1382 rewlers vpon ten, Vulg. decanos]. c 1440 Secrees 187 Ffolwe þanne vche comandour ffoure vicaires, & vche vicaire tene lederes, & vche ledere tene denys, & vche deyn ten men. Ibid., With vche a ledere tene dyens, and with vche a dyen ten men. 1483 Caxton Gold. Leg. 59/2 Ordeyne of them trybunes & centuriones & denes that may in all tymes juge the peple. |
† 2. As a translation of med.L. decānus, applied in the ‘Laws of Edward the Confessor’ to the teoðing-ealdor, borsholder, headborough, or tithingman, the headman of a friðborh or tenmannetale. (See Stubbs, Const. Hist. I. v. 87.) Obs.
| [a 1200 Laws of Edw. Conf. xxviii, Sic imposuerunt justitiarios super quosque x friðborgos, quos decanos possumus dicere, Anglicè autem tyenþe heued vocati sunt, hoc est caput x.] 1647 N. Bacon Disc. Govt. Eng. i. xxvi. (1739) 44 If any controversy arose between the pledges, the chief pledge by them chosen, called also the Dean or Headburrough, might determine the same. 1695 Kennett Par. Antiq. (1818) II. 338 Which justices, or civil deans, were to examine and determine all lesser causes between villages and neighbours. |
3. As a translation of Eccl. L. decānus, applied to a head or president of ten monks in a monastery.
In the OE. transl. of the Rule of St. Benedict, c. xxi, rendered teoþingealdor ‘tithing-elder’.
| [a 430 Augustine De Moribus Eccl. Cath. i. 31 Eis quos decanos vocant eo quod sint denis propositi.] a 1641 Bp. R. Montagu Acts & Mon. 437 Only the Deanes, or Tenth men, goe from Cell to Cell to minister consolation. 1695 Kennett Par. Antiq. (1818) II. 339–340 The like office of deans began very early in the greater monasteries, especially in those of the Benedictine order; where the whole convent was divided into decuries, in which the dean or tenth person did preside over the other nine..And in the larger houses, where the numbers amounted to several decuries, the senior dean had a special preeminence, and had sometimes the care of all the other devolved upon him alone. And therefore the institution of cathedral deans was certainly owing to this practice. 1885 Catholic Dict. s.v., The senior dean, in the absence of the abbot and provost, governed the monastery. |
4. The head of the chapter or body of canons of a collegiate or cathedral church.
Arising out of the monastic use. ‘As a cathedral officer, the decanus dates from the 8th c., when he is found, after the monastic pattern, as subordinate to the praepositus, or provost, who was the bishop's vicegerent as head of the chapter’. But ‘the office in its full development dates only from the 10th or 11th c...the Dean of St. Pauls, a.d. 1086, being the first English dean’. Dict. Chr. Antiq.
| c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 337 Sir Alisander was hie dene of Glascow. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xiii. 65 Þis freke bifor þe den of poules Preched of penaunces. 1494 Fabyan Chron. vii. 327 Y⊇ great deane of Pawlis, Mayster Richarde Wethyrshed. 1577 Harrison England ii. i. (1877) i. 14 Cathedrall churches, wherein the deanes (a calling not knowne in England before the Conquest) doo beare the cheefe rule. 1641 Termes de la Ley 101 Deane and Chapter is a body Corporate spirituall, consisting of..the Deane (who is chiefe) and his Prebends, and they together make this Corporation. 1689 Wood Life 17 June, Dr. Aldridge, canon of Ch. Ch. [was] installed deane. 1714 Swift Imit. Hor. Sat. ii. vi. 43 Good Mr. Dean, go change your gown. 1846 M{supc}Culloch Acc. Brit. Empire (1854) II. 263 There may be a chapter without any dean, as the chapter of the collegiate church of Southwell..Every dean must be resident in his cathedral chuch four score and ten days..in every year. 1862 Mrs. H. Wood Mrs. Hallib. xxviii, ‘Will you pardon my intruding upon you here, Mr. Dean?’ he began. |
5. A presbyter invested with jurisdiction or precedence (under the bishop or archdeacon) over a division of an archdeaconry; more fully called rural dean; formerly (in some cases) dean of Christianity; see Christianity 4. (There were also urban deans (decani urbani): see Kennett Par. Antiq. II. 339.)
The rural dean had, in England till the Reformation, and in France till the Revolution, large powers of visitation, administration, and jurisdiction, which are still retained in some Roman Catholic countries. In England the office and title became almost obsolete from the 16th c., but have, since 1835, been generally revived for purposes of diocesan organization. See Dansey, Horæ Decanicæ Rurales, 1835.
(Kennett, Du Cange, etc., have cited decanus episcopi in this sense from the ‘Laws of Edward the Confessor’ xxvii; but episcopi is an interpolation not in the original text, the decanus spoken of being really in sense 2 above.)
| a 1350 Cursor M. 29539 (Cotton Galba MS.) And of a prest assoylid be, Þat power has to vnbind þe, Þat es he þat it first furth sent, Als dene of officiall by iugement. c 1380 Wyclif Wks. (1880) 249 Whanne þei ben falsly amendid by officialis & denes. c 1450 Holland Howlat 215 The Ravyne..Was dene rurale to reid. 1456 Pol. Poems (Rolls) II. 236 With offycyal nor den no favour ther ys, But if sir symony shewe them sylver rounde. 1482 Monk of Evesham (Arb.) 80 Of the negligens of denys of archedekons and of other officers. 1514 Fitzherb. Just. Peas (1538) 121 It shalbe leful to al Archedecons, Deanes, &c...to weare Sarcenet in theyr lynynges of theyr gownes. 1697 Bp. Gardiner Advice Clergy Lincoln 6 The Assistance of Rural Deans, which Office is..yet exercised in some Dioceses..but has unhappily been disused in this, (for how long time I know not). 1712 Prideaux Direct. Ch.-wardens (ed. 4) 104 Bishop Lloyd went so far..as to name Rural Deans in every Deanry of the Diocese. 1765 Blackstone Comm. I. 382 The rural deans are very antient officers of the church, but almost grown out of use; though their deaneries still subsist as an ecclesiastical division of the diocese, or archdeaconry. 1826 Polwhele Trad. & Recoll. II. 610 On visiting the church at L. St. Columb as Dean-rural. |
b. In the American Episcopal Church, the president of a convocation (q.v., 3 b).
6. In other ecclesiastical uses:
Dean of Peculiars: one invested with the charge of a peculiar, i.e. a particular church, parish, or group of parishes which is exempt from the jurisdiction of the bishop of the diocese within which it is situated, e.g. the Dean of Battle in Sussex. Such is also the Dean of the Chapels Royal in England (St. James's and Whitehall); in Scotland the Deans of the Chapel Royal are six clergymen of the Ch. of Scotl., who receive a portion of the revenues formerly belonging to the Chapel Royal of Holyrood.
Dean of the Arches: the lay judge of the Court of Arches, who has peculiar jurisdiction over thirteen London parishes called a deanery, and exempt from the authority of the bishop of London.
Dean of the Province of Canterbury: the Bishop of London, who, under a mandate from the archbishop, summons the bishops of the province to meet in Convocation.
| [1496 see decan 3.] 1647 Clarendon Hist. Reb. i. (1843) 33/2 The then Bishop of London, Dr. Laud, attended on his majesty, throughout that whole journey [into Scotland] which, as he was dean of the chappel, he was not obliged to do. 1660 R. Coke Power & Subj. 203 The King shall present to his free chappels (in default of the Dean). 1726 Ayliffe Parergon 192 The Judge of this Court..is distinguished by the title of Dean or Official of the Court of Arches. Ibid. 205 There are also some Deans in England without any Jurisdiction; only for Honour so stiled; as the Dean of the Royal Chapel, the Dean of the Chapel of St. George at Windsor. 1846 M{supc}Culloch Acc. Brit. Empire (1854) II. 265 The third species of Deans are those of peculiars..Deans of peculiars have sometimes jurisdiction and cure of souls, as the Dean of Battle, in Sussex, and sometimes jurisdiction only, as the Dean of the Arches, London. 1893 Whitaker's Almanack, Dean of the Chapels Royal, The Bishop of London. |
7. In the colleges of Oxford and Cambridge: The title of one or more resident fellows appointed to supervise the conduct and studies of the junior members and to maintain discipline among them, to present them for graduation, etc.
The office came originally from that of the monastic dean, and was disciplinary; one important function of the dean in early times was to preside at the disputations of the scholars, and in the Oxford colleges of the new foundation deans were appointed in the different faculties, e.g. at New College, two in Arts, one in Canon Law, one in Civil Law, and one in Theology, who presided at the disputations of the students in these faculties; from the end of the 16th c., it became customary also in most colleges for the dean to present for degrees. At present the functions pertaining to discipline, attendance at chapel, graduation, etc., are sometimes discharged by a single dean, alone or in conjunction with a sub-warden, vice-president, or other vice-gerent, sometimes distributed among two or three deans; hence the offices of senior dean and junior dean, or sub-dean, dean of arts, dean of divinity, dean of degrees, existing in some colleges.
[In the Statutes of Merton Coll., 1267–74, such officers are appointed ‘numero cuilibet vicenario vel etiam decenario,’ but the title decanus is not used. 1382 Stat. New Coll. Oxon. xiv, Quinque socii..qui sub dicto custode tanquam ejus coadjutores Scholarium et Sociorum ipsorum curam et regimen habeant, qualiter scilicet in studio scholastico et morum honestate proficiant..Quos omnes sic præfectos Decanos volumus nuncupari. Permittentes quod illi ambo Decani facultatum Juris Canonici et Civilis eligi poterunt, etc.]
| 1577 Harrison England ii. iii. (1877) i. 81 There is moreouer in euerie house a maister or prouost, who hath vnder him a president, and certeine censors or deanes, appointed to looke to the behavour and maners of the students there. 1847 Tennyson Princ. Prol. 161 At college..They lost their weeks: they vext the souls of deans. 1853 ‘C. Bede’ Verdant Green iv, He had been Proctor and College Dean there. 1891 Rashdall in Clark Coll. Oxford 157 (New Coll.) The discipline was mainly in the hands of the Sub-Warden and the five deans—two Artists, a Canonist, a Civilian, and a Theologian—who presided over the disputations of their respective Faculties. |
8. The president of a faculty or department of study in a University, as in the ancient continental and Scotch Universities, and in the colleges affiliated to the modern Universities of London, Victoria, etc.
In U.S., the dean is now a registrar or secretary.
| [1271 Chartul. Univ. Paris. I. 488 Magistro J. de Racheroles tunc existente decano facultatis medicine. 1282 Ibid. I. 595 Canonicus Parisiensis et decanus theologice facultatis. 1413 Juramentum Bachalariorum, St. Andrews, Ego juro quod ero obediens facultati arcium et decano eiusdem. 1453 Jas. II. Letter in Munim. Univ. Glasg. I. 6 Facultatum decanos procuratores nacionum regentes magistros et scholares in prelibata Universitate.] 1524 Jas. V Letter to St. Andrews 19 Nov., Maister Mertyne Balfour vicar of Monymeil, den of faculte of art of the said universite. 1535 Ibid. 28 Feb., Dean of facultie of Theologie of the said university. 1578 Contract in Munim. Univ. Glasg. I. 119 Maister Thomas Smeitoun minister of Paslay and dean of facultie of the said Universitie. 1708 J. Chamberlayne St. Gt. Brit. ii. iii. (1743) 438 The University of Glasgow..had originally considerable Revenues for the Maintenance of a Rector, a Dean of Faculty, a Principal or Warden, etc. 1875 Edin. Univ. Cal. 37 The affairs of each Faculty are presided over by a Dean, who is elected from among Professors of the Faculty. 1893 tr. Compayré's Abelard 135 The deans..were the real administrators of their respective Faculties. They presided in the assemblies of their company, and were members of the council of the University. |
b. Dean of Faculty: the president of the Faculty of Advocates in Scotland.
| 1664 Minutes Faculty of Advocates 4 June (MS. in Adv. Libr.), Motione being made anent the electione of ane deane of faculty. 1826 Scott Diary 7 June in Lockhart, I went to the Dean of Faculty's to a consultation about Constable. |
c. Also the usual title of the head of a school of medicine attached to a hospital.
| 1849 Minutes of Committee St. Thomas's Hosp. 23 May, The Committee having been summoned for the purpose of taking into consideration the appointment of a Dean..it was agreed..that some one member of the Medical School shall for each year act in the capacity and with the title of ‘Dean of the Medical School’. 1893–4 Prospectus St. Thomas's Med. Sch. 16 Dean of the School, G. H. Makins, F.R.C.S. |
9. dean of guild: a. in the mediæval guilds, an officer who summoned the members to attend meetings, etc.; b. in Scotland, the head of the guild or merchant-company of a royal burgh, who is a magistrate charged with the supervision of all buildings within the burgh.
Except in the four cities of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Perth, and Aberdeen, where he is still elected by the guildry, this officer is now chosen by the town-councillors from among their own number.
| 1389 in Eng. Gilds 46 On Dene, for to warnyn alle þ⊇ gild breþren and sistren. 1469 Sc. Acts Jas. III (1597) §29 Al Officiares perteining to the towne: As Alderman, Baillies, Deane of Gild, and vther officiares. 1754 Erskine Princ. Sc. Law (1809) 43 The Dean of Guild is that magistrate of a royal borough, who is head of the merchant-company; he has the cognisance of mercantile causes within borough..and the inspection of buildings. 1806 Gazetteer Scotl. (ed. 2) 506 Selkirk is a royal borough..It is governed by 2 bailies, a dean of guild, treasurer, and 10 counsellors. 1864 Kirk Chas. Bold I. ii. i. 451 The deans of the guilds and the principal citizens, who had come out to meet him. |
10. The president, chief, or senior member of any body. [= F. doyen.]
| 1687 Lond. Gaz. No. 2215/2 At the Boots of the Coach went the Pages..and by them the Dean or chief of the Footmen in black Velvet. 1827 Hardman Battle of Waterloo 15 Ah! ah! Boney, must you, or our Duke, be the chief dean? 1889 Times 25 Nov. 6 The Diplomatic Agents at Cairo..met at the residence of the dean, the Consul-General of Spain, Señor de Ortega. |
b. Dean of the Sacred College: see quot. 1885.
| 1703 Lond. Gaz. No. 3921/1 The Cardinal de Bouillon will return hither..to exercise his Function of Dean of the College of Cardinals. 1885 Catholic Dict. s.v., The Cardinal Dean is the chief of the sacred college; he is usually the oldest of the Cardinal Bishops..He presides in the consistory in the absence of the Pope. |
11. Comb.
| 1862 Sat. Rev. XIV. 706/1 If Lord Shaftesbury is to be a Dean-maker. Ibid., The whole system of Dean-making needs reform. |
Add: [8.] d. dean's list N. Amer. (orig. U.S.), a list of students recognized for academic achievement during a term by the dean of the college they attend.
| 1915 Harvard Univ. Catal. 1914–15 523 The Dean's List. A student who records himself as intending to become a candidate for a degree with distinction in a subject or related subjects is entitled to have his name placed upon a List at the beginning of his Sophomore year. 1923 Harvard Univ. Catal. 1923–24 184 Any student who at the mid-year or final examinations has attained an average of B in his courses may be placed on the Dean's List for the succeeding half-year. 1939 W. L. Phelps Autobiogr. with Lett. xiv. 98 All the students are trying to get on the ‘Dean's List’ which means that if they are sufficiently intelligent or industrious, they will not have to attend classes regularly. 1974 News & Reporter (Chester, S. Carolina) 22 Apr. 5-a/3 Miss Swing..is a rising junior at the University of North Carolina... She is majoring in Sociology and is a dean's list student. 1986 Cambridge (Mass.) Chron. 6 Mar. 3/3 The following Cambridge residents have recently been named to the dean's list at Newbury College. |
▪ II. dean2, dene
(diːn)
Forms: 1 denu, 1– dene, 2–4 dane, 5 deyne, 6 Sc. dyne, 8–9 dean.
[OE. denu, acc. dene, valley:—OTeut. *dani-, from the same root as OE. den(n, den (:—OTeut. danj-o{supm}), q.v.]
A vale: a. formerly the ordinary word, literal and figurative (as in OE. déaþ-denu valley of death, ME. dene of teres), and still occurring in the general sense in some local names, as the Dean, Edinburgh, Taunton Dean, the wide valley of the Tone above Taunton, and perh. Dean Forest; b. now, usually, the deep, narrow, and wooded vale of a rivulet.
As a common appellative, used in Durham, Northumberland, and adjacent parts of Scotland and England; as part of a proper name, separate or in composition, occurring much more widely, e.g. Denholm Dean in Roxburghshire, Jesmond Dean or Dene near Newcastle, Castle Eden Dean or Dene and Hawthorndene in Durham, Chellow Dene near Bradford, North Dean near Halifax, Hepworth Dene near Huddersfield, Deepdene near Dorking, East Dean, West Dean, Ovingdean, Rottingdean, in deep wooded vales in the chalk downs near Brighton. The spelling dene is that now prevalent in Durham and Northumberland. In composition often shortened to den, as Marden, Smarden, Biddenden, etc. in Kent.
| c 825 Vesp. Psalter lxxxiii. 7 In dene teara [in convalle lacrimarum]. Ibid. ciii. 10 In deanum. c 1000 ælfric Gram. (Z.) 56 Uallis, dene. c 1000 Ags. Gosp. Luke iii 5 ælc denu [Lindisf. dene, Hatton dane] bið ᵹefylled. a 1300 E.E. Psalter lxxxiii. 7 (Mätz.) In dene of teres. c 1325 E.E. Allit. P. A. 295 Þou says þou trawez me in þis dene. 1340 Ayenb. 59 Ich wille maki þe helles and þe danes. a 1400–50 Alexander 5421 Þan dryues he furth..into a deyne entris, A vale full of vermyn. 1594 Batt. Balrinness in Sc. Poems 16th C. II. 355 Now must I flie, or els be slaine..With that he ran ouer ane dyne Endlongis ane lytill burne. 1612 Drayton Polyolb. iii. 418 Tauntons fruitfull Deane. 1794 W. Hutchinson Hist. Durham III. 1 There are some deep and woody vales or deans near this mansion [at Castle Eden]. 1806 Hull Advertiser 11 Jan. 2/2 The Estate offers..deans for plantations, sheltered from the sea. 1816 Surtees Hist. Durham I. ii. 44 The wild beauties of the Dene [at Castle Eden]. 1873 Murray Handbk. Durham 13 The deep wooded denes which débouche upon the coast. |
▪ III. dean3
As a Cornish mining term: The end of a level.
| 1874 in Knight Dict. Mech. 1881 in Raymond Mining Gloss. |