acolyte

English

Etymology

From Middle English acolite, acolit, from Old French acolyt and Late Latin acolythus, from Ancient Greek ἀκόλουθος (akólouthos, “follower, attendant”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈæ.kə.laɪt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

acolyte (plural acolytes)

1. (Christianity) One who has received the highest of the four minor orders in the Catholic Church, being ordained to carry the wine, water and lights at Mass.
2. (Christianity) An altar server.
3. An attendant, assistant, or follower.
   • 2021 March 17, Stephen Collinson, “New US intel report shows Russia, Trump and GOP acolytes have same goals”, in CNN‎^[1]:

     The real bombshell it contains is not the confidence of the spy agencies that Russia hoped to subvert American democracy. It is that US intelligence experts effectively confirmed that for the second election in a row, Trump acolytes repeatedly used, knowingly or otherwise, misinformation produced by the spies of one of America’s most sworn foreign adversaries to try to win a US election.

   • 2023 October 25, Stephen Collinson, “Trump rages as former acolytes turn against him under legal heat”, in CNN‎^[2]:

     She was the third former Trump acolyte to agree to testify against the ex-president and others this week.

Synonyms

(assistant): sidekick

Derived terms

• acolytate
• acolyteship
• Macolyte

Translations

Catholic church: highest of the minor orders; ordained to carry wine, water and lights at the Mass

• Catalan: acòlit (ca) m
• Dutch: acoliet (nl) m
• Esperanto: akolito
• Finnish: akolyytti (fi)
• French: acolyte (fr)
• German: Akolyth (de) m
• Greek: ακόλουθος (el) m (akólouthos)
• Hungarian: akolitus
• Interlingua: acolyto
• Irish: acalaí m, túiseoir m
• Italian: accolito (it) m
• Polish: akolita (pl) m, akolitka f
• Portuguese: acólito (pt) m
• Spanish: acólito (es) m
• Tagalog: monasilyo, munisilyo
• Turkish: rahip yardımcısı
• Vietnamese: chú giúp lễ

in general: assistant

• Dutch: helper (nl)
• Finnish: apulainen (fi), avustaja (fi), apuri (fi)
• French: acolyte (fr) m or f
• German: Gehilfe (de) m
• Greek: βοηθός (el) m (voïthós)
• Macedonian: по́мошник m (pómošnik)
• Norwegian: assistent (no) m
• Polish: akolita (pl) m, akolitka f
• Portuguese: acólito (pt) m, assistente (pt) m or f, ajudante (pt) m or f
• Spanish: ayudante (es) m or f

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “acolyte”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Anagrams

• cotylae

French

Alternative forms

• acolythe (obsolete)

Etymology

Inherited from Old French acolyt, from Ecclesiastical Latin acolytus, from Ancient Greek ἀκόλουθος (akólouthos, “follower, attendant”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.kɔ.lit/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

acolyte m or f (plural acolytes)

1. (religion) acolyte
2. henchman, sidekick

Further reading

• “acolyte”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.