coadjutor

English

Etymology

From Middle English coadjutowre, from Old French coadjuteur, borrowed from Late Latin coadiūtōrem, from co- + adiūtor (“helper”), from adiuvō (“to help”) + -tor (agent suffix). By surface analysis, co- +‎ adjutor.

The French derivation gave the accentuation co⁠ˈadjutor (used by Samuel Taylor Coleridge), but the poets generally, since 1600, appear to have coa⁠ˈdjutor, after Latin. No Latin *coadiuvō or *coadiūtō is recorded, but in the modern languages words have been formed on these types, suggested by coadjutor.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /kəʊəˈd͡ʒuːtə/, /kəʊˈæd͡ʒʊtə/

Noun

coadjutor (plural coadjutors)

1. An assistant or helper. [from c. 1430–1450]
   • 1842, [anonymous collaborator of Letitia Elizabeth Landon], chapter XXXVII, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 174:

     Then have the lady patronesses and their active coadjutors, whether noble or ignoble, all the work of beating up for recruits to go over again.

   • 1891, Mary Noailles Murfree, In the "Stranger People's" Country, Nebraska, published 2005, pages 206–7:

     The mountaineer, with all his pulses aquiver, looked down into his coadjutor’s white, startled face.

   • 1924, Herman Melville, chapter 12, in Billy Budd‎^[1], London: Constable & Co.:

     Hitherto I have been but the witness, little more; and I should hardly think now to take another tone, that of your coadjutor, for the time, did I not perceive in you,—at the crisis too—a troubled hesitancy, proceeding, I doubt not, from the clash of military duty with moral scruple—scruple vitalized by compassion.

2. (ecclesiastical) An assistant to a bishop. [from 1549]
   • 1842, John Henry Newman, The Ecclesiastical History of M. L'abbé Fleury:

     When old age rendered any Bishop unable to perform his duties, the first example of which occurs AD 211, when Alexander became coadjutor to Narcissus at Jerusalem

   • 2005, James Martin Estes, Peace, Order and the Glory of God:

     August then appointed Prince George III of Anhalt (who was both a theologian and a priest as well as a prince) to be his coadjutor in spiritual matters.

Derived terms

• bishop coadjutor
• coadjutor bishop
• coadjutorship
• coadjutress

Related terms

• coadjute

Translations

assistant — see assistant

assistant to a bishop

• Catalan: coadjutor m
• French: coadjuteur (fr) m
• German: Koadjutor m
• Indonesian: koajutor
• Italian: coadiutore (it) m
• Russian: коадъютор (ru) m (koadʺjutor)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: коа̀дјӯтор m

  Latin: koàdjūtor (sh) m

• Spanish: coadjutor m

Galician

Noun

coadjutor m (plural coadjutores, feminine coadjutora, feminine plural coadjutoras, reintegrationist norm)

1. reintegrationist spelling of coadxutor

Further reading

• “coadjutor”, in Dicionário Estraviz de galego (in Galician), 2014–2026

Portuguese

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Late Latin coadiūtorem.

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ko.a.d͡ʒuˈtoʁ/ [ko.a.d͡ʒuˈtoh]

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ko.a.d͡ʒuˈtoʁ/ [ko.a.d͡ʒuˈtoh]
  • (São Paulo) IPA^(key): /ko.a.d͡ʒuˈtoɾ/
  • (Rio de Janeiro) IPA^(key): /ko.a.d͡ʒuˈtoʁ/ [ko.a.d͡ʒuˈtoχ]
  • (Caipira) IPA^(key): /ko.a.d͡ʒuˈtoɻ/

 

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /kwɐ.d͡ʒuˈtoɾ/ [kwɐ.ðʒuˈtoɾ]

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /kwɐ.d͡ʒuˈtoɾ/ [kwɐ.ðʒuˈtoɾ]
  • (Southern Portugal) IPA^(key): /kwɐ.d͡ʒuˈto.ɾi/ [kwɐ.ðʒuˈto.ɾi]

• Hyphenation: co‧ad‧ju‧tor

Noun

coadjutor m (plural coadjutores, feminine coadjutora, feminine plural coadjutoras)

1. coadjutor (assistant)

Derived terms

• bispo coadjutor
• coadjutoria

Further reading

• “coadjutor”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “coadjutor”, in Dicionário infopédia da Lingua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Porto: Porto Editora, 2003–2026
• “coadjutor”, in Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), São Paulo: Editora Melhoramentos, 2015–2026, →ISBN
• “coadjutor”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Spanish

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Late Latin coadiūtorem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /koadxuˈtoɾ/ [ko.að̞.xuˈt̪oɾ]
• Rhymes: -oɾ
• Syllabification: co‧ad‧ju‧tor

Noun

coadjutor m (plural coadjutores, feminine coadjutora, feminine plural coadjutoras)

1. coadjutor (assistant)

Derived terms

• coadjutoría

Further reading

• “coadjutor”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025