Lectureship

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A position involving teaching or delivering educational talks at an institution
2. An academic role focused on instruction and research with responsibilities including giving lectures
3. A type of employment that entails engaging students through presentations and course design

Etymology: "Lectureship" is a simple formation: the noun "lecture" with the suffix "-ship" attached. The first part descends from Latin "legere", meaning "to read", via the Latin "lectura", a reading or lesson. That sense survives in the way "lecture" first entered English, as a formal reading or discourse delivered to an audience, and the word's older Latin ancestry was tied to reading aloud from texts. The suffix has a longer and more varied history. It comes from Old English "-sċiepe", which carried the sense of "shape" or "condition", and it passed through Middle English "-schipe" to the modern "-ship". The same suffix gives us "friendship", "hardship", and "scholarship", each naming a state, quality, or office. Attaching it to "lecture" produces a noun for the office or position of a lecturer.

Synonyms: professorship, teaching position