ab⋅bot
[ab-uh
t] 
| a man who is the head or superior, usually elected, of a monastery. |
bef. 900; ME, var. of abbat < L abbāt- (s. of abbās) < Gk < Aram abbā abba; r. ME, OE abbod (cf. OHG abbat) < LL abbād- for abbāt-
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Ab⋅bot
[ab-uht] Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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| ab·bot (āb'ət) n.
[Middle English abbod, from Old English, from Late Latin abbās, abbāt-, from Greek abbā, abbās, from Aramaic 'abbā, my father; see  b in Semitic roots.] |
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Abbot
Ab"bot\, n. [AS. abbod, abbad, L. abbas, abbatis, Gr. 'abba^s, fr. Syriac abb[=a] father. Cf. Abba, Abb['e].]1. The superior or head of an abbey. 2. One of a class of bishops whose sees were formerly abbeys. --Encyc. Brit. Abbot of the people. a title formerly given to one of the chief magistrates in Genoa. Abbot of Misrule (or Lord of Misrule), in medi[ae]val times, the master of revels, as at Christmas; in Scotland called the Abbot of Unreason. --Encyc. Brit.Cite This Source
abbot
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abbot
the superior of a monastic community that follows the Benedictine Rule (Benedictines, Cistercians, Camaldolese, Trappists) and of certain other orders (Premonstratensians, canons regular of the Lateran). The word derives from the Aramaic ab ("father"), or aba ("my father"), which in the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament) and in New Testament Greek was written abbas. Early Christian Egyptian monks renowned for age and sanctity were called abbas by their disciples, but, when monasticism became more organized, superiors were called proestos ("he who rules") in the East and the Latin equivalent, praepositus, in the West.
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