vicar
pronunciation
How to pronounce vicar in British English:
UK [ˈvɪkə(r)]
How to pronounce vicar in American English:
US [ˈvɪkər]
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- Noun:
- a Roman Catholic priest who acts for another higher-ranking clergyman
- (Episcopal Church) a clergyman in charge of a chapel
- (Church of England) a clergyman appointed to act as priest of a parish
Word Origin
- vicar
- vicar: [13] A vicar is etymologically a ‘substitute’ for or ‘representative’ of someone else: thus the pope is the vicar of God on Earth, and the vicar of a parish was originally someone who stood in for the parson or rector. The word comes via Old French vicaire from Latin vicārius ‘substitute, deputy’. This was a noun use of the adjective vicārius ‘substituting’ (source of English vicarious [17], which more closely preserves the meaning of its Latin original). And vicārius in turn was derived from vicis ‘change, turn, office’, source also of English vicissitude [16] and the prefix vice-.=> vicarious, vicissitude
- vicar (n.)
- early 14c., from Anglo-French vicare, Old French vicaire "deputy, second in command," also in the ecclesiastical sense (12c.), from Latin vicarius "a substitute, deputy, proxy," noun use of adjective vicarius "substituted, delegated," from vicis "change, interchange, succession; a place, position" (see vicarious). The original notion is of "earthly representative of God or Christ;" but also used in sense of "person acting as parish priest in place of a real parson" (early 14c.). The original Vicar of Bray (in figurative use from 1660s) seems to have been Simon Allen, who held the benefice from c. 1540 to 1588, thus serving from the time of Henry VIII to Elizabeth I, being twice a Catholic and twice a Protestant but always vicar of Bray. The village is near Maidenhead in Berkshire.
Example
- 1. The vicar ran out with his servant .
- 2. Dad was the local church vicar , mum his loyal wife .
- 3. They have an apostolic vicar at keren .
- 4. He was the son of the local vicar .
- 5. The vicar left his position near the soldier , and disappeared into a back room .