Attend/hold services

[irmamar]

Thanks for your answers.

That's curious that "vicario", in Spanish and Catholic Church can mean both a priest and somebody who helps the priest. "Ministro de la Iglesia" and "pastor" are also terms used in Catholicism.

Awaken, last year I studied that "commoner" or "commonest" is correct in English (BrE). There must be a thread about it somewhere.

[Perikles]

Originally Posted by irmamar

Awaken, last year I studied that "commoner" or "commonest" is correct in English (BrE). .

Correct. Monosyllabic and disyllabic adjectives normally add -er, polysyllabic ones normally use more, with some overlap with disyllabic ones.

On inspecting BNC and COCA, I find that

BrE,
more common: 658
commoner: 138

AmE
more common 2431
commoner 227

So whereas more common is commoner than commoner everywhere, more common is 5 times commoner than commoner in BrE, but 10 times commoner than commoner in AmE

All clear?

And for commonest:

BrE
most common 1111
commonest 302

AmE
most common 5123
commonest 144

Here the ratios are BrE 4 to 1, AmE 35 to 1, so the American commonest is much less common than the BrE commonest

[pjt33]

To join the discussion on clergy late...

"Preacherman" is a very American word. In BNC there are only seven instances, and they're all in the same novel, which appears to be set in the USA. (Mind you, it doesn't appear common in en-us either - 10 instances in COCA, although from more than one source).

A "priest" in English can be Catholic, Orthodox, or from a number of non-Christian religions. Its virtual non-usage in Protestantism is probably because one of the main points of contention in the Reformation was the "priesthood of all believers" - the Protestant doctrine that any Christian can come to God without an intermediary.

"Vicar", "rector", "curate", and "parson" are all used in the Anglican church, with different shades of meaning. "Curate" is also used in a Catholic context, although it is not necessarily a direct equivalent of the Spanish cognate "cura".

Non-conformist churches use a wide variety of names for church leaders. Presbyters, pastors, ministers, elders, even apostles.

[irmamar]

Originally Posted by pjt33

To join the discussion on clergy late...

"Preacherman" is a very American word. In BNC there are only seven instances, and they're all in the same novel, which appears to be set in the USA. (Mind you, it doesn't appear common in en-us either - 10 instances in COCA, although from more than one source).

A "priest" in English can be Catholic, Orthodox, or from a number of non-Christian religions. Its virtual non-usage in Protestantism is probably because one of the main points of contention in the Reformation was the "priesthood of all believers" - the Protestant doctrine that any Christian can come to God without an intermediary.

"Vicar", "rector", "curate", and "parson" are all used in the Anglican church, with different shades of meaning. "Curate" is also used in a Catholic context, although it is not necessarily a direct equivalent of the Spanish cognate "cura".

Non-conformist churches use a wide variety of names for church leaders. Presbyters, pastors, ministers, elders, even apostles.

Thanks.

Reading my notes again, I've seen "Druidic priests", so I guess that's the reason why "priest" is used in this context (Romanisation), because of those "non-Christian religions".

[Perikles]

Originally Posted by irmamar

Reading my notes again, I've seen "Druidic priests", so I guess that's the reason why "priest" is used in this context (Romanisation), because of those "non-Christian religions".

In this case, there is not much evidence of what the Druid religion consisted of, other than they appeared to be a religous caste. So the 'priest' is an invention (presumably of catholics) for the status they had, for want of a better word.

[pjt33]

Originally Posted by irmamar

Reading my notes again, I've seen "Druidic priests", so I guess that's the reason why "priest" is used in this context (Romanisation), because of those "non-Christian religions".

Sospecho que el autor escribe para gente que no conoce nada de nada de esas culturas, porque la palabra inglesa para un sacerdote druídico es "druid", ya está.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

También en español se dice "druida"... a lo mejor el autor no leyó nunca un ejemplar de Astérix.

@Perikles: Do you mean "Norma" didn't have the job that Bellini made her sing about?

[irmamar]

Es un libro de historia.

De todos modos, aunque en españo también se dice "druida", a la hora de definir lo que era un druida podemos decir que eran los sacerdotes de las religiones de las antiguas Galia y Britania. También existían los sacerdotes y sacerdotisas en Grecia y Roma. Priests?

[Perikles]

Originally Posted by AngelicaDeAlquezar

@Perikles: Do you mean "Norma" didn't have the job that Bellini made her sing about?

It's possible

Originally Posted by irmamar

También existían los sacerdotes y sacerdotisas en Grecia y Roma. Priests?

Yes, but their function was quite different. There was no organized religion with some alleged sacred text and unity of conception equivalent to Christianity, so the term 'priests' (usually Greek hiereis, Roman sacerdotes) is very misleading. 'Priest' was usually some honorary position for a specific function held by somebody important, but rarely a full-time job. The Greeks had priests and priestesses (males for gods, females for goddesses), serving specific cities, but the Romans only had males formed into brotherhoods (sodales).

I would normally leave it there, but I suppose I have to mention the Vestal Virgins (an exception), because if I don't, somebody else will.

[irmamar]

¿Qué tal las carmentas y las monetales?