churchwarden means A lay officer of the Church of England who handles the secular affairs of the parish. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 86 out of 100.
Why this word is great
CHURCHWARDEN — [Noun] A lay officer of the Church of England or Episcopal church responsible for managing the secular affairs of a parish. From Middle English *cherchewardeyn*, *chirchewardeyn*, *churchewardeyn*, equivalent to *church* ("a place of Christian worship") + *warden* ("guardian, overseer"). Unlike a *sexton* (who tends the building and tolls the bells) or a *vestryman* (who deliberates in committee), the churchwarden is the quiet steward of the mundane: counting the collection plate’s copper and silver, negotiating with roofers about the leaking chancel, or noting in a ledger the slow decline of Sunday attendance. It is the scrape of a key in the vestry door, the weight of an iron-bound register in the hands, the faint smell of damp hymnbooks—a role less of piety than of persistence, where faith is measured in shillings and sagging beams.
noun
- A lay officer of the Church of England who handles the secular affairs of the parish.“At first, not knowing any better, I used sometimes to copy a nude on the pavement. The first I did was outside St Martin's-in-the-Fields church. A fellow in black—I suppose he was a churchwarden or something—came out in a tearing rage.”
- A similar functionary of the Episcopal church.