clericadj.n.

Etymology: < late Latin clēricus clergyman, priest, properly an adjective ‘of or belonging to the clērus ’; < Greek κληρικός ‘of or pertaining to an inheritance’, in later (Christian) use ‘of or belonging to the ecclesiastical or sacerdotal order’, < κλῆρος ‘lot, allotment, piece of land, estate, heritage’, used in 2nd cent. as a name of the ministerial or sacerdotal order in the church, the clergy. The Greek words were adopted in Latin in this transferred sense only (clērus in Tertullian a220, clēricus in Jerome 4th cent.), with which they passed into Romanic and English. Compare clerk n.On the history of the application of κλῆρος to the Christian ministry, see Bishop Lightfoot Philippians (1868) 245–6, where its probable origin is seen in the use of the word in Acts i. 17, τόν κλῆρον τῆς διακονίας ταύτης ‘the lot of this ministry’; compare i. 25. In the time of Jerome, explanations were sought in the use of κλῆρος in Deuteronomy xviii. 2, compared with ix. 29, and parallel passages; and 1 Peter v. 3 was interpreted in this sense. Jerome's explanation is thus repeated in the Apology for the Lollards (c1400) 43: ‘The clerk..schuld interpret þe calling of his nam, and enforce to be þat he is seid; for a clerk in our speche is seid sort, and þer for are men seid clerkis, for þei are of þe Lordis sort, or for þe Lord is þer part; and for he is þe Lordis part, or haþ þe Lord his part, he au[h]t to haue him s[u]ilk þat he haue þe Lord, and be had of þe Lord.’