deacon

Meanings

Noun

• A designated minister of charity in the early Church (see Acts 6:1-6).
• A clergyman ranked directly below a priest, with duties of helping the priests and carrying out parish work.
• Free Churches: A lay leader of a congregation who assists the pastor.
• Anglicanism: An ordained clergyman usually serving a year prior to being ordained presbyter, though in some cases they remain a permanent deacon.
• Methodism: A separate office from that of minister, neither leading to the other; instead there is a permanent deaconate.
• A junior lodge officer.
• The lowest office in the Aaronic priesthood, generally held by 12 or 13 year old boys or recent converts.
• A male calf of a dairy breed, so called because they are usually deaconed (see below).
• The chairman of an incorporated company.

Verb

• For a choir leader to lead a hymn by speaking one or two lines at a time, which are then sung by the choir.
• To kill a calf shortly after birth.
• To place fresh fruit at the top of a barrel or other container, with spoiled or imperfect fruit hidden beneath.
• To make sly alterations to the boundaries of (land); to adulterate or doctor (an article to be sold), etc.

Related

Narrower meaning words

• permanent deacon, transitional deacon

Origin

• From Old English diacon, from Ecclesiastical Latin diaconus, from Ancient Greek διᾱ́κονος.