preacher, n. meanings, etymology and more | Oxford English Dictionary
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Revised 2007

preachernoun

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    1. 1.a.
      ?c1225–
      A person who preaches, esp. one whose occupation or function is to preach the (Christian) gospel; a person who delivers a sermon or sermons; a minister of religion (sometimes spec. one licensed to preach).
      1. ?c1225 (?a1200)
        Prelaz & treowe Preachiurs [?a1289 Scribe D Prechurs].
        Ancrene Riwle (Cleopatra MS. C.vi) (1972) 9
      2. c1275
        Hi ne hedden neue te i heer[r]d prophete ne apostle ne prechur.
        Kentish Serm. in J. Hall, Selections Early Middle English (1920) vol. I. 221
      3. c1300
        Þe beste prechour he was iholde þat me owar vnderstode.
        St. Edmund Rich (Harley MS.) 317 in C. D'Evelyn & A. J. Mill, South English Legendary (1956) 502 (Middle English Dictionary)
      4. c1350
        Forto kepen þe pes & defenden þe prelates & þe prechours [French precheur] forto techen goddes folk.
        Apocalypse St. John: A Version (Harley MS. 874) (1961) 158 (Middle English Dictionary)
      5. a1400 (c1300)
        For thi suld ilke precheour schau The god that godd hauis hert him knau.
        Northern Homily: Serm. on Gospels (College Phys. MS.) in Middle English Dict. at Prechour
      6. c1449
        A famose and a plesaunt precher to peple in a pulpit.
        R. Pecock, Repressor (1860) 88
      7. 1548
        That now was the tyme to playe the preacher.
        N. Udall et al., translation of Erasmus, Paraphrase Newe Testamente vol. I. Matt. iii. 28
      8. 1562
        By a preacher is meant such an one as hath preached before his ordinary, and hath his approbation under seal to be a preacher.
        in J. Strype, Annals of Reformation (1709) vol. I. xxvii. 284
      9. 1589
        Priests to be sober and sad, a Preacher by his life to giue good example, [etc.].
        G. Puttenham, Arte of English Poesie iii. xxiv. 245
      10. 1621
        A graue and learned Minister, and an ordinary Preacher at Alcmar in Holland.
        R. Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy i.ii.iii. vi. 135
      11. 1662
        To church; and there being a lazy preacher, I sleep out the sermon.
        S. Pepys, Diary 2 November (1970) vol. III. 247
      12. 1693
        That Minister whose Life is not the Model of his Doctrin, is a Babler rather than a Preacher.
        W. Penn, Some Fruits of Solitude §398. 110
      13. 1749
        The Bell, an excellent House... The Master of it is Brother to the great Preacher Whitefield.
        H. Fielding, Tom Jones vol. III. viii. viii. 198
      14. a1774
        While he rehearsed his heroics, they walked cap in hand before him, respecting him like a high-way preacher.
        O. Goldsmith, translation of P. Scarron, Comic Romance (1775) vol. I. xxv. 289
      15. 1815
        Many of their preachers are exceedingly illiterate.
        S. J. Mills & D. Smith, Rep. Missionary Tour 19
      16. 1859
        John of Antioch..had been the great preacher of the day.
        J. H. Newman in Rambler November 41
      17. 1885
        A moveable pulpit made of wood for the preacher to stand in.
        A. Edgar, Old Church Life in Scotland 177
      18. 1926
        The early traveling preachers and judges who did their rounds of duty in the scattered New England settlements.
        L. Perl, Slumps, Grunts, & Snickerdoodles ii. 32
      19. 1954
        11 Africans sentenced to death..for the murder of a Muslim preacher who had denounced the cult to which the men belonged.
        Times 27 February 5/4
      20. 1992
        Pastor Church Smith, a Pentecostal preacher, was baptizing the hippies who wandered along the Huntington and Laguna beaches.
        D. Morgan, Rising in West iii. xvi. 291
      educationreligion
    2. 1.b.
      c1300–
      With of: a person who preaches or advocates a particular message, doctrine, practice, etc. Also preacher up (cf. preach v. 2c).
      1. c1300
        To beo prechour of mi word, i-chose ich him habbe.
        St. Paul (Laud MS.) 43 in C. Horstmann, Early South-English Legendary (1887) 191 (Middle English Dictionary)
      2. a1393
        Thou..hast destruid to mochel schame The prechours of his holy name.
        J. Gower, Confessio Amantis (Fairfax MS.) ii. 3356 (Middle English Dictionary)
      3. a1400 (a1325)
        Þese were þe apostlis twelue..Precheres [a1400 Vespasian MS. Spellers] of trouþe.
        Cursor Mundi (Trinity Cambridge MS.) l. 21179
      4. c1440
        Men scholde haue the prechoures of Holi Scripture in greete reuerence.
        S. Scrope, translation of C. de Pisan, Epistle of Othea (St. John's Cambridge MS.) (1970) 23
      5. a1500
        Þe goode scheperde or prelate or prechour of þe worde of gode..preches with þe horne of goddes worde.
        Gesta Romanorum (Gloucester MS.) (1971) 760 (Middle English Dictionary)
      6. 1552
        Precheouris of ye word of god.
        Archbishop J. Hamilton, Catechisme Preface
      7. 1611
        The first Preachers of the Gospel.
        M. Smith in Bible (King James) Transl. Preface 4
      8. 1649
        We have him still a perpetual Preacher of his own vertues.
        J. Milton, Εικονοκλαστης xii. 126
      9. 1693
        He is among us still, and in us too, a living and perpetual Preacher of the same Grace.
        W. Penn, Some Fruits of Solitude §395. 110
      10. 1714
        He was for many years a Preacher of the Gospels at the Isle of Shoals.
        Boston News-letter 22 March 2/1
      11. 1759
        Seneca, that great preacher of insensibility.
        A. Smith, Theory of Moral Sentiments i. §iv. i. 104
      12. 1845
        Ever in conclave, with persons..who..are the preachers of violence.
        B. Disraeli, Sybil vol. III. v. iii. 40
      13. 1861
        He was soon known as a preacher of Unitarian doctrines.
        Contributions to Ecclesiastical History of Connecticut 276
      14. 1870
        The denouncer of shams, the preacher up of sincerity.
        J. R. Lowell, My Study Windows 139
      15. 1909
        Hus, from the pulpit of the Bethlehem Chapel, became a powerful preacher of righteousness.
        R. M. Jones, Stud. Mystical Religion 367
      16. 1960
        He fits especially well because of his turn from pagan word-merchant (venditor verborum) to preacher of The Word.
        K. Burke, Letter 20 July in Selected Correspondence of Kenneth Burke & Malcolm Cowley (1988) 337
      17. 1993
        Overseeing a conglomorate that traffics in everything from space-saving radios to network-TV programming, Mr. Welch is a tireless preacher of the gospel of go and grow.
        Industry Week 6 December 23/1
    3. 1.c.
      c1395–
      figurative and in extended use: a person who exhorts others earnestly; a person who advocates or inculcates something by speech or writing, esp. in a self-righteous or overbearing manner; a person who or thing which imparts a lesson or commends an attitude.
      In quot. a1425: (perhaps) a disputant.
      1. c1395
        ‘Now, dame,’ quod he, ‘by god and by seint Iohn, Ye been a noble prechour in this cas.’
        G. Chaucer, Wife of Bath's Tale 165
      2. a1425
        Logotheca, a prechoure.
        Medulla Grammatice (Stonyhurst MS.) f. 38v
      3. 1579
        If we shold beleue Herome he wil make Platos exiles honest men, & his pestiferous poets good preachers.
        T. Lodge, Protogenes 19
      4. a1616
        They are our outward Consciences, And Preachers to vs all.
        W. Shakespeare, Henry V (1623) iv. i. 9
      5. 1711
        No Preacher is listned to but Time.
        J. Swift, Various Thoughts in Miscellanies in Prose & Verse 236
      6. 1792
        It is happy for us that these are preachers without followers.
        T. Jefferson, Letter 16 June in Papers (1990) vol. XXIV. 85
      7. 1860
        The precipice to my left was a continual preacher of caution.
        J. Tyndall, Glaciers of Alps i. xxii. 158
      8. 1864
        These three writers are emphatically preachers and moralists.
        H. James in North American Review October 585
      9. 1934
        That is why artists like Tolstoy..turn themselves into preachers, and become insufferable moralists.
        W. Lewis, Men without Art ii. vii. 193
      10. 1963
        Why doesn't Mr Williams see this? I think because he is a preacher rather than a thinker, one more interested in exhorting than in analyzing.
        D. MacDonald, Against American Grain 231
      11. 1994
        Long-time cyber-art preacher Roy Ascott, fantasise that cyber-art will completely replace art as we make it and know it today.
        Advertiser (Adelaide) (Nexis) 1 November
  2. 2.
    ?c1335–
    A member of the Dominican order; a Dominican friar. Now historical and rare.
    Often contrasted with minor (see minor n. B.1). See also preaching friar n., O.P. n., and Friars Preachers at friar n. 2a.
    1. ?c1335
      Hail be ȝe, gilmins..Menur wiþ oute and prechur wiþ inne.
      in W. Heuser, Kildare-Gedichte (1904) 155 (Middle English Dictionary)
    2. a1402
      Noþer þe menoures chargeþ nouȝt noþer ordeyneþ to ȝeue siche almes to þe prechours.
      J. Trevisa, translation of R. Fitzralph, Defensio Curatorum (Harley MS.) (1925) 48 (Middle English Dictionary)
    3. a1425 (?c1384)
      Prechouris and Menours seyn þe reverse.
      J. Wyclif, Select English Works (1871) vol. III. 353 (Middle English Dictionary)
    4. 1528–30
      In the order of fryers mynours or prechers.
      translation of T. Littleton, Tenures (new edition) f. xviv
    5. 1911
      Guillaume de Flavacourt..declared that the people refused to hear the word of God from any save the Preachers and Minors.
      Catholic Encyclopedia (Electronic edition) vol. XII. at Order of Preachers
    6. 1952
      It is true that the ethos of the two Orders is different. St. Bonaventure expressed it by saying that the Preachers put learning before holiness, the Minors holiness before learning.
      B. Smalley, Study of Bible in Middle Ages vi. 268
    7. 1999
      The reforms of 1246 which brought the administration of the Humiliati up to date, introducing a style of government closely based on that of the order of Preachers.
      F. Andrews, Early Humiliati 218
    Christianityhistorical
  3. 3.
    1535–
    spec. With the and capital initial. Solomon as the supposed speaker in the biblical Book of Ecclesiastes. Also: †the book itself (obsolete).
    1. 1535
      These are the wordes of the Preacher, the sonne of Dauid, kynge of Ierusalem. All is but vanite, saieth ye preacher [Latin dixit Ecclesiastes, Wyclif seide Ecclesiastes].
      Bible (Coverdale) Eccl. i. i. 2
    2. 1579
      The book of Psalmes, the Preacher, & the song of Salomon.
      W. Fulke, Heskins Parleament Repealed in D. Heskins Ouerthrowne 7
    3. 1732
      Ecclesiastes, or the Book of the Preacher, was written by Solomon.
      D. Collyer, Sacred Interpreter (ed. 2) 339
    4. 1887
      The book of the Son of Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), the book of the Preacher (Ecclesiastes), and the Wisdom of Solomon indicate three separate stages.
      J. P. Mahaffy, Greek Life & Thought 483
    5. 1920
      As regards the book of the Preacher, some have seen a reproduction of Greek words and phrases in certain novel Hebrew forms.
      N. Bentwich, Hellenism 91
    6. 1967
      In this respect Man is like the animals (Ps. 104.29); hence the Preacher asks despairingly (Eccles. 3.18–21) whether after death there is any difference between the two.
      J. A. Baker, translation of W. Eichrodt, Theol. Old Testament vol. II. ii.xix. 214