Kirkern.
/ˈkəːkə/, U.S. /ˈkərkər/ A member or supporter of the Kirk or Church of Scotland. Now chiefly in Auld Kirker n. at Auld Kirk n. Derivatives. Cf. Free Kirker n. at Free Kirk n. Derivatives.
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society > faith > sect > Christianity > Protestantism > Presbyterianism > [noun] > person
disciplinarian1591
disciplinary1593
consistorian1606
Presbyterian1606
kirkmana1645
presbyter1647
presbyterial1647
Presbyterialist1647
Kirker1651
Kirkist1652
whiggamore1654
Whig1657
scaldabancoa1670
cloak-man1680
Presbyteera1708
Knoxian1714
blue skin1790
Auld Kirker1856
bluenose1861
1651 Royall Story sig. ** Cromwell notwithstanding findes himselfe too weake for these Kirkers.
1680 G. Hickes Spirit of Popery 5 Which is the Kirk, and Kirkers usual sence of free grace, according to the Assemblies larger and shorter Catechisms.
1705 I. Sharpe Presbyterian Loyalty 19 These Actions of the Kirkers make the King leave Town (and good Reason too) and go to Linlithgow; whereupon they resolve for War, the Ministers agitating them.
1716 M. Davies Athenæ Britannicæ II. 310 Twenty Episcopals..to one Kirker of the Calvinistical Order.
1816 J. Adams Let. 21 Dec. in T. Jefferson Writings (1854) VII. 48 That the Pope will send Jesuits to this country, I doubt not; and the church of England, missionaries too. And the Methodists,..and the Scottish Kirkers.
1856 Rambler Jan. 53 The Kirkers in Scotland of the old sort now occupy the buildings, and have the money, which the Episcopalians had taken from us.
1908 S. R. Crockett Princess Penniless xxxix. 257 The ‘kirkers’, as they were called in Thorsby, were a strong people, many of whom had kept their pews from immemorial time.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2011; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1651