| 释义 |
sexton|ˈsɛkstən|
Forms: α. 4–5 segerstone, 4–6 -ane, 6 -en, (sequestern, segerson), 6–7 segerston, 7 seggerston; 6 sagar-, sacarston, 6–7 sagerston. β. 5 secristeyn, -ane, -oun, sekyrsteyn, 6 secri-, secra-, secrestan. γ. 4 sekesteyn, 4–6 sexteyn(e, -eine, (4 -eyene, -ein, 5 -een, cexteyne, 6 cyxten, seixten), 5–6 sextayn(e, -ene, 5–7 sexten, (5 sex(e)sten, 6 sextine, 7 -aine, -an, -in, sixeteene), 6– sexton; 6 saxten, 7 saxton.
[a. AF. segerstaine, = OF. segrestein, secrestein, -in, etc. (whence med.L. segrestanus), semi-popular ad. med.L. sacristānus sacristan (of which this word is a doublet). The trisyllabic (α and β) forms are almost entirely confined to northern texts; cf. the early quots. s.v. sacristan.]
1. A church officer having the care of the fabric of a church and its contents, and the duties of ringing the bells and digging graves.
In early use often = the sacristan in a religious house, cathedral, etc., having charge of the vestments, sacred vessels, relics, and the like. In popular use from the 16th c. usually = bell-ringer and grave-digger.
α [1330Rolls of Parlt. II. 47/2 Benefices appurtenantz al Segerstaine d'Everwik.] 1391Mem. Ripon (Surtees) III. 110 In salario Johannis Segerstane mundantis ecclesiam in le flore ejusdem, item parietes et fenestras vitreas ejusdem. 1537Whalley Abbey Inv. (P.R.O.), The sequestern that had the keping of al the seid copes. 1546Yorksh. Chantry Surv. (Surtees) II. 353 Yerlie to the segezstane [read seger-] and belman, iiijs. vjd. Ibid. 530 In the saide collegiate churche bee..fower segersons. 1637Churchw. Acc. Pittington, etc. (Surtees) 100 For the seggerston, 3s.
1575–6Durham Depos. (Surtees) 280 Being..sagarston of the same church 20 yeres togither. 1597Churchw. Acc. Pittington, etc. (Surtees) 127 Item the sacarston for his fourth quarter's wages, xij d. 1687Ibid. 255 That John Riddam shall make and assist the sagerston to make graves.
β14..Nom. in Wr.-Wülcker 680/36 Hic sacrista, a secristoun. 1463Bury Wills (Camden) 26 To the Secristeyn and to the Priour of Dusgylde. 1483Cath. Angl. 327/2 A Secristane; vbi Sacristane. 1513Bradshaw St. Werburge ii. 1588 Werburge appered to the secristan alone. 1537Aberdeen Reg. (1844) I. 151 Quhen thai ar warnit be the secrestanis seruand, or him self. Ibid., Gyf the secrastan preevis nocht his warning.
γ1303R. Brunne Handl. Synne 11093 A nyȝt, whan þe sekesteyn yn bede was leyd, Hym þoȝt [etc.]. 13..St. Alexius (Cott. MS.) 192 That Images spake, þat was so bryght, to the sexteyene vppon a nyght. c1386Chaucer Monk's Prol. 48 Thou art som Officer Som worthy sexteyn or som Celerer. c1440Promp. Parv. 67/2 Cexteyne [edd. 1508, 1516 cyxten], sacrista. 1463Bury Wills (Camden) 17 Y⊇ Sexteyn of y⊇ chirche to haue..xij d. for his rynggyng and his mete. 1498in Somerset Med. Wills (1901) 363 The said cruetts and paxebrede to be in the kepyng of the Sexten of the said priorie. a1539in Archæologia XLVII. 56 That the president of your religion or sextene kepe them [sc. church keys]. 1581G. Pettie tr. Guazzo's Civ. Conv. iii. (1586) 168 b, As a sextine said, a man cannot carie the crosse, and ring the bells altogether. 1596Nashe Saffron Walden O, [The] continuall crashing of sextens spades against dead mens bones. 1602Shakes. Ham. v. i. 177, I haue bin sixeteene heere, man and Boy thirty yeares. 1624Bedell Lett. xi. 140 As if all that are made Priests among you were Psalmists, Sextens, Readers, Exorcists, Torch-bearers, Subdeacons, and Deacons before. 1638in Legg Clerk's Bk. (1903) 99 Whether your Parish Clark or Sexton hath had due regard to the Ornaments of your Church. 1708J. Chamberlayne St. Gt. Brit. i. ii. vii. (1755) 71 Where the Office of the Clerk and Sexton are distinct, the Minister chooses the former, the people the latter. 1766Blackstone Comm. I. 395 Parish clerks and sextons are also regarded by the common law, as persons who have freeholds in their offices. 1826Hood Faithless Sally Brown 67 They went and told the sexton, and The sexton toll'd the bell. 1866Geo. Eliot F. Holt I. i. 18 The sexton waited in the belfry ready to set the one bell in joyful agitation just at the right moment.
1593in Legg Clerk's Bk. (1903) 81 And also that the same Saxten shall..rynge the fowerthe Bell for a daye Bell. 1696Churchw. Acc. Pittington, etc. (Surtees) 260 If the said saxton be negligent therein, he shal hereby incurr the forfeiture of his place.
†b. Applied to the pope's sacristan. Obs.
1667P. A. Acc. Pope Alex. VII, etc. 25 The Sandals were taken up by the hand of the Lord Sexton. 1728Chambers Cycl. s.v., The Office of Sexton of the Pope's Chapel is particularly affixed to the Order of the Hermits of Saint Augustin: He is generally a Bishop... He takes the Title of Prefect of the Pope's Sacristy.
†c. transf. Applied to custodians of heathen temples, etc.; a keeper, warden. Obs.
1582Stanyhurst æneis iv. 78 Seixten of Hesperides Sinagog. 1603Florio Montaigne ii. xii. (1632) 298 Varro..writeth, that Hercules his Sextaine [etc.]. 1606Holland Sueton. 39 The warden and Sextaine of that ground or soyle, which Augustus of happy memory touched first.
d. fig.
1502Arnolde Chron. 61/1 O tho most noble bishop..thou art y⊇ clere lyght of thy feyth & y⊇ sexten of y⊇ crysten relygion. 1595Shakes. John iii. i. 324 Old Time the clocke setter, yt bald sexton Time. 1603Holland Plutarch's Mor. 1150 A Sextaine [orig. µυσταγωγός], who leadeth by the hand those that are professed in some religion, shewing unto them all the holy reliques and sacred ceremonies. 1867Baker Nile Trib. i. (1872) 7 The usual sextons were the crows.
2. = sextoness, sacristan 2.
c1400Rule St. Benet (Verse) 1472 The Priores, & oþer nane, Aw for to ches a segerstane To ring þe bels in right aray. c1440Jacob's Well 271 A nunne þat hyȝte Beatrix, sexteyn of here hows. c1450in Aungier Syon (1840) 284 Sche that is sexteyne moste ordeyn that the awter in the sustres quyer be honestly arayed. c1475Pict. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 780/16 Hic et hec secrista, a sekyrsteyn.
3. A sexton beetle.
1885Riverside Nat. Hist. (1888) II. 385 Necrophorus... These beetles are often called sextons or grave-diggers.
4. attrib. and Comb.: sexton beetle, a beetle of the genus Necrophorus; a burying beetle.
1839G. Darley Nepenthe ii. 31 Floods of dust..Heaped o'er thee by the sexton winds! 1840Cuvier's Anim. Kingd. 516 Necrophorus, Fabr... The instinctive habits which these insects possess of burying small quadrupeds, has caused them to be named Sexton, or Burying Beetles. 1854A. Adams, etc. Man. Nat. Hist. 195 Sexton-Beetles (Blapsidæ). 1891Meredith One of Our Conq. xli, That worm-like thread of voice [of a dying woman] came up to him still from sexton-depths. |