sextonessn.
/sɛkstəˈnɛs/, /ˈsɛkstənᵻs/, U.S. /ˈsɛkst(ə)nəs/ A female sexton.
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society > faith > church government > laity > lay functionaries > sexton > [noun] > female
sextona1325
sextressc1390
sextonessa1450
sextricec1475
butt woman1823
a1450 St. Edith (Faust.) (1883) l. 3228 (MED) Þe sexstenes rong þe belles anon.
?c1450 in G. J. Aungier Hist. & Antiq. Syon Monastery (1840) 306 (MED) The sexteynes schal ordeyne be fore the profession the bere with fayre newe erthe, and make a crosse therupon.
c1451 J. Capgrave Life St. Gilbert (1910) 121 (MED) Þe nunne, þe sextenesse, rang to mateyns.
1682 J. Phillips Speculum Crape-gownorum: 2nd Pt. 12 It behoves Mr. Sexton, or Mrs. Sextoness, to have a vigilant eye that day, knowing that Christmas will come.
1760 ‘W. Singleton’ Acct. Proc. Squire Pam 8 The person, who now stood forth, was Ann Jolly, Sextoness.
1826 M. R. Mitford Our Village II. 117 He..even dug a grave for the sextoness, an old woman of eighty.
1888 J. W. Burgon Lives Twelve Good Men I. iv. 397 Rebecca (the dear old sextoness of S. Mary's).
1937 Lima (Ohio) News 10 Mar. 24/2 Mrs. Minnie D. Tucker, the present sexton or ‘sextoness’ of the Oakwood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia, has lived in a cemetery all her life.
2004 Express & Echo (Exeter) (Nexis) 6 July 20 The church's sextoness, or caretaker, Mrs Day..used to sell whey at the portal of the church.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2008; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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