ˈportionist
[ad. med.L. portiōnista (1499 in Du Cange), f. portiōn-em portion: see -ist.]
1. A student in a college, receiving or entitled to a defined portion or allowance of food (whether as a boarder or as recipient of a benefaction). † a. At St. Andrews, A student who boarded with the principal of the college, and was entitled to his ‘commons’. Obs.
| 1563–7 Buchanan Reform. St. Andros Wks. (S.T.S.) 7 The steuart to be payit be the principal off the profet of the portionistis. |
b. In reference to Merton College, Oxford: A rendering of the Latin term portionista, applied to the class of poor scholars usually called post-masters.
The official terms are, in Latin documents, portionista, in English, postmaster; portionist appears to be merely a 17th c. literary rendering of the former by Wood, Hearne, and others after them.
| a 1672 Wood Life 1 Aug. an. 1635 (O.H.S.) I. 45 The old stone-house, wherein his son A. Wood was borne (called antiently Portionists or Postmasters hall). Ibid. 52 The second brother of A. Wood, named Edward, became one of the portionists or postmasters of Merton Coll. [in 1642]. 1710 Hearne Collect. (O.H.S.) III. 54 He..was enter'd at 15 Years of Age, as one of the Portionists or Post-Masters of Merton Coll. 1826 Southey in Q. Rev. XXXIV. 343 Parkhurst (afterwards Bishop of Norwich) whose portionist and pupil he was at Merton College. 1895 Rashdall Universities II. 488 The body of Portionists (now corrupted to Postmasters) was engrafted..about the year 1300. |
2. Eccl. One of two or more incumbents who share the duties and revenues of a benefice.
| 1743 Act. 16 Geo. II, c. 28 §35 All..Easter offerings, and other dues..that have been usually paid to the said rector or vicar, or portionists of the parish church of Stepney. 1794 W. Combe Boydell's Thames I. 59 Its parochial tithes are divided between three portionists, who are all presented by the church of Exeter. 1888 Dict. Nat. Biog. XIII. 247/2 He was also canon resident and portionist at Hereford. |