thurifer
/ˈθjʊərɪfə
/noun
An acolyte carrying a censer in a religious ceremony.If our contemporary thurifer had been a 1950s’ basketball player, my old Irish pastor would have benched him for being a hot dog....
- The celebrant and thurifer must have been trained by baton-twirling majorettes, as they were of the school that likes to rotate the thurible through 360 degrees!
- It was, and still is, customary for the thurifer then to incense the people in parochial churches.
Origin
Mid 19th century: from late Latin, from Latin thus, thur- 'incense' (from Greek thuos 'sacrifice') + -fer '-bearing'.