sexton

/ˈsɛk.stən/

Etymology

From Old French segrestien, from Medieval Latin sacristanus, based on Latin sacer (“sacred”). Doublet of sacristan.

name

  1. A surname originating as an occupation.

noun

  1. A church official who looks after a church building and its graveyard and may act as a gravedigger and bell ringer.“The whole village poured out to gaze on these Asiatic princes, for such the old sexton, who had in his youth been at Moscow and Constantinople, said they were.”
  2. A sexton beetle.