Presbytership

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The office, rank, or position held by a presbyter in a Christian church
2. The role or status of serving as a presbyter within an ecclesiastical body
3. The ecclesiastical office occupied by a member of the clergy with presbyter's authority and responsibilities

Etymology: "Presbytership" is a plain formation: the noun "presbyter," borrowed from ecclesiastical Latin "presbyter" and ultimately from Greek "presbyteros," meaning "elder," with the suffix "-ship" added to name the office or state of holding it. The Greek root is the same one behind "priest," which is the surprising part. English "priest" is a shortened form of "presbyter" that came through Old English and developed the sense of a minister of the church, while "presbyter" was taken directly from the Latin and kept its more formal shape. That split left English with two words for one office. "Priestship" and "presbytership" are piecewise doublets: they came from the same source by different routes, and each keeps its own part of the meaning, so the English word for the state of being a priest and the more learned term for the office have been running side by side ever since.