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pastorless

 - 3 dictionary results

pas⋅tor

  [pas-ter, pah-ster]
Use pastorless in a Sentence
–noun
1. a minister or priest in charge of a church.
2. a person having spiritual care of a number of persons.
3. Ornithology. any of various starlings, esp. Sturnus roseus (rosy pastor) of Europe and Asia.
–verb (used with object)
4. to serve as the pastor of: He pastored the church here for many years.
Origin:
1325–75; < L pāstor shepherd, lit., feeder, equiv. to pās-, base of pāscere to put to pasture, feed + -tor -tor; r. ME pastour < AF

Related forms:
pas⋅tor⋅less, adjective
pas⋅tor⋅like, pas⋅tor⋅ly, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Cultural Dictionary

pastor

In some groups of Christians, the clergyman in charge of an individual congregation. The term is used this way in the Lutheran Church and Roman Catholic Church and, to a lesser extent, by Baptists and in the Protestant Episcopal Church.

The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

pastor  (n.)
1242, "shepherd," also "spiritual guide, shepherd of souls" (1377), from O.Fr. pastur "herdsman, shepherd" (12c.), from L. pastorem (nom. pastor) "shepherd," from pastus, pp. of pascere "to lead to pasture, graze," from PIE base *pa- "to tend, keep, pasture, feed, guard" (see food). The spiritual sense was in Church L. (cf. Gregory's "Cura Pastoralis"). The verb in the Christian sense is from 1872.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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