nonjuror
/nɒnˈdʒʊəɹə/
Etymology
From non- + juror.
nonjuror means someone who refuses to swear a particular oath, specifically a clergyman who refused to take the oath of allegiance to William and Mary in 1689. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 90 out of 100.
nonjuror is pronounced /nɒnˈdʒʊəɹə/.
Why “nonjuror” is a great word
NONJUROR — [Noun] A person, especially a clergyman, who refuses to swear a required oath of allegiance, as notably those Anglican clergy who declined to pledge loyalty to William and Mary after the Glorious Revolution of 1688. Formed within English by derivation from the prefix non- (expressing negation) and the noun juror (one who swears an oath or serves on a jury). Unlike a dissenter, who separates from an established church over doctrine, or a recusant, who refuses religious conformity on specific grounds, a nonjuror’s defiance is a pointedly political refusal of a specific loyalty test. It is the key turned silently in the lock of a rectory door, the unbent knee in a chapel now legally another’s, the mute, principled absence at a civic ceremony—a testament to how a single, silent 'no' can carve a life into exile.
noun
- Someone who refuses to swear a particular oath, specifically a clergyman who refused to take the oath of allegiance to William and Mary in 1689.“Accident brought her into the Company of a Couple of Clergymen, disguised in Secular Habits, The one was a Venerable Old Nonjuror, the other, the Reverend Dr..... Dean of — [...].”
- One who is not a juror.