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sexton (SEK-stuhn) - n., a church or synagogue official responsible for maintaining the building and its religious articles and/or graveyard, and sometimes assists with services or burying the dead.
The burying part of duties is strictly Christian, while assisting the cantor is strictly Jewish. In 1300, it was spelled and pronounced closer to sekesteyn, with a stricter meaning of a person in charge of the sacred objects of a church, from Anglo-Norman segerstaine, from Old French segrestien, from Medieval Latin sacristanus, from the ancestor of sacristan, the object in charge of holding sacred objects. The usual feminine form is sextoness, recorded from the early 15th century, which goes to show that Church offices were not always as gender segregated as we might expect.
---L.
The burying part of duties is strictly Christian, while assisting the cantor is strictly Jewish. In 1300, it was spelled and pronounced closer to sekesteyn, with a stricter meaning of a person in charge of the sacred objects of a church, from Anglo-Norman segerstaine, from Old French segrestien, from Medieval Latin sacristanus, from the ancestor of sacristan, the object in charge of holding sacred objects. The usual feminine form is sextoness, recorded from the early 15th century, which goes to show that Church offices were not always as gender segregated as we might expect.
---L.
