ˈsword-bearer
[Cf. ON. sverðberari.]
A person who bears a sword. a. spec. A municipal official who carries a sword of state before a magistrate on ceremonial occasions.
| 1431 Rec. St. Mary at Hill (1905) 15 The Mayres Swerd berer for the tyme beyng. a 1471 Rolls of Parlt. V. 396/1 Kerver and Swordberer to the said moste heynous Traytour. 1518 Star Chamber Cases (Selden Soc.) II. 143 Officers of the same Towne, as Recorder, Towne Clerke, Swordberer, attorney and other. a 1674 Clarendon Hist. Reb. xvi. §118 The City of London sent a Letter to him by their Sword-Bearer. 1708 Lond. Gaz. No. 4464/5 His Lordship..carried the Sword bareheaded before Her Majesty..to the Church, where the City Sword-bearer receiv'd it from his Lordship. a 1734 North Lives (1826) I. 251 There was one Row in office of swordbearer; which in that town [sc. Bristol] is pronounced sorberer. I thought it sounded like Cerberus. 1835 App. Munic. Corpor. Rep. i. 60 The Sword-bearer [of Gloucester] is elected for life by the corporation... His only duties are to attend upon the mayor, and to carry the sword. |
b. An attendant on a military man of rank, or on a chief, who carries his master's sword when not worn.
| 1660 in Verney Mem. (1904) II. 151 What the Sword-bearer brought of Monke's coming up, may bee falsly rendered by him. |
c. gen. One who carries or wears a sword.
| 1530 Palsgr. 278/1 Swerdeberer, porteur despee. 1538 Elyot, Macherophorus, a sworde bearer. 1570 Jewel View Bull Pius V (1582) 4 [Saint] Paule the Swordebearer. 1802 James Milit. Dict., Sword-bearer, one who wears a sword. |
d. A ruler or magistrate having authority to punish offenders (with allusion to Rom. xiii. 4).
| 1660 R. Coke Justice Vind. 32 Though he makes no difference between Swordbearers and Swordtakers, between Gods Ministers, and Theeves and Robbers; yet the Holy Ghost does, for Gods Minister is a Swordbearer. 1691 Baxter Nat. Ch. xi. 49 Supposing such Bishops qualified.., and usurping none of the Sword-bearers power. |
e. One of an order of knights in Poland, founded in 1204: see port-glaive.
| 1656 [see port-glaive]. 1693 d' Emiliane's Hist. Monast. Orders 287 Of the Order of Teutonick Knights, Marrianes, or Sword-bearers. 1728 Chambers Cycl. s.v. Teutonic, In 1204, Duke Albert had founded the Order of Sword-bearers, Port-Glaives. 1784 H. Clark Hist. Knighthood II. 88 Albert then Bishop of Livonia..prescribed to these Knights the Cistercian rule and habit, viz. a long white mantle and black hood; on the breast two swords in saltire, whence they had the title of Brethren Sword-Bearers. 1841 Penny Cycl. XX. 248/1 Most of these [German] families settled there [sc. in the Baltic provinces] when the Order of the Knights Sword-bearers was the acknowledged sovereign of these countries (from 1300 to 1530). |
Hence ˈswordˌbearership, the office of a sword-bearer (sense a).
| 1535 Cranmer Let. to Crumwell in Misc. Writ. (Parker Soc.) II. 307 His preferment unto the room of the sword⁓bearership of London. |