Ostiary

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A person employed to guard or keep watch at a door or gate, particularly of a religious building
2. Someone stationed at an entrance to control access and admit or turn away visitors
3. A keeper of a doorway or threshold, traditionally a minor cleric in a church who acts as a porter

Etymology: "Ostiary" names a doorkeeper, and its Latin ancestor "ostiarius" was a plain job title built on "ostium," meaning "door" or "entrance." English took the word directly from Latin, so it kept the sense of the official who guarded the way in rather than picking up a new meaning along the way. The word has a close relative that came into English by a different route. "Usher," the familiar term for someone who shows people to their seats or guards a door, is considered a doublet of "ostiary," meaning the two words descend from the same Latin source but reached English separately, with one arriving through Old French and the other borrowed straight from Latin. The pairing shows how a single Latin job title could split into two English words, one worn down by everyday speech and the other kept closer to its original form.

Synonyms: doorkeeper, porter, gatekeeper, usher