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ˌprivy ˈcounsellor, ˈcouncillor
[ME. prive counseiller: see privy a. 2 and counsellor; from 17th c. occasionally, and in 19th c. often spelt councillor after privy council; but counsellor is the official as well as historical form.]
1. A private or confidential adviser.
(Often with allusion to sense 2.)
[13..Cursor M. 3005 (Fairf.) Þe kinge [Abimelech] made him [Abraham] his counsalour priue [earlier texts made him his prive]. c1380Sir Ferumb. 2052 Charlis consailer am y pryue y-sent on his message. ]1390Gower Conf. III. 292 He hadde a feloun bacheler, Which was his prive consailer. 1422tr. Secreta Secret., Priv. Priv. 167 The kynge Of the Cite..sende for the Philosofre, and makyd hym his prywey consailloure. 1719De Foe Crusoe i. xx. (1840) 363 My principal guide and privy counsellor, was my good ancient widow. 1837W. Irving Capt. Bonneville II. xxxii. 256 The old chief and his privy counsellor, the guide, had another mysterious colloquy.
2. (With capital initials.) spec. in Great Britain: One of the private counsellors of the sovereign; a member of the Privy Council.
Indicated by the addition to his name of P.C., and styled Right Honourable. See note to prec., sense 2.
1647Clarendon Hist. Reb. i. §42 Having..married a near ally of the Dukes, with wonderfull expedition was made a Privy-Councellour. 1659Rushw. Hist. Coll. I. 165 The Privy-Counsellors to the late King, with all the Lords Spiritual and Temporal then about London, were in the Council Chamber at Whitehall by Eight of the Clock in the morning. 1765Blackstone Comm. I. v. 232 The privileges of privy counsellors, as such, consist principally in the security which the law has given them against attempts and conspiracies to destroy their lives. 1814[J. Hunter] Who wrote Cavendish's Wolsey? 22 He left it, at about the age of fifty, a knight, a privy counsellor, and the owner of estates. 1818Cruise Digest (ed. 2) IV. 277 A deed executed in the presence of four privy councillors. 1891J. Chamberlain in Times 28 Nov. 12/3 There are those who sit upon the front bench who, by reason of not being Privy Councillors, have no right to sit there. 1907Whitaker's Peerage 49 In the official list the members are termed Privy Counsellors, which is correct, in view of the counsel they are supposed to give; but they are equally Councillors as being members of a Council.
fig.1657North's Plutarch, Add. Lives (1676) 10 Some..rashly do fancy to themselves, that they are the Almighties Privy-Counsellours. 1711Addison Spect. No. 55 ⁋4 Avarice..had likewise a Privy-Counsellor who was always at his Elbow, and whispering something or other in his Ear: The Name of this Privy-Counsellor was Poverty.
Hence ˌprivy-ˈcounsellorship, -ˈcouncillorship [see -ship].
1880Disraeli Endym. iii, He retired with the solace of a sinecure, a pension, and a privy-councillorship. |