confessor

English

Alternative forms

• confessour (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English confessor, confessour, from Anglo-Norman confessour, and its source, Latin cōnfessor, from cōnfiteor (“confess, admit, acknowledge”). By surface analysis, confess +‎ -or.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kənˈfɛsə/, /ˈkɒnfɛsə/, /ˈkɒnfɛsɔː/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /kənˈfɛsɚ/
• Rhymes: -ɛsə(ɹ)

Noun

confessor (plural confessors)

2. One who confesses faith in Christianity in the face of persecution, but who is not martyred.

   Coordinate term: martyr

   Long before Edward I, the English had a King Edward who they considered a martyr and a King Edward who they considered a confessor.

   • 2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin, published 2010, page 174:

     Confessors provided the troubled Church with an alternative sort of authority based on their sufferings, particularly when arguments began about how and how much to forgive those Christians who had given way to imperial orders – the so-called ‘lapsed’.

4. One who confesses to having done something wrong.

   Near-synonym: confessant

6. (Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism) A priest who hears confession and then gives absolution.

   Synonym: father confessor

   Coordinate term: confessant

8. (by extension, figurative) Someone who acts as listener and helper.
   • 1994 October, Larry Gross, “Coming Out On the Soaps”, in Gay Community News‎^[1], page 14:

     They do not feel connected to any gay/lesbian communities. Nor do they feel able to establish relationships with anyone who can support them. Thus an inexperienced but sincere young heterosexual actor can find himself playing not only role model but also confessor and phantom friend to people in great need.

Derived terms

• confessorial
• confessorship
• father confessor

Translations

one who confesses

• Bulgarian: ^{(please verify)} изповядващ се (izpovjadvašt se)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 自白者, 懺悔者 / 忏悔者

• Greek: ομολογητής (el) m (omologitís)
• Irish: admhálaí m
• Japanese: 告白者, 自白する人
• Old English: andetta m
• Persian: خستو (fa) (xostu)
• Russian: испове́дник (ru) m (ispovédnik)

one who confesses faith in Christianity

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 宣信者 (xuānxìnzhě)

• Czech: vyznavač (cs)
• Danish: bekender c
• Dutch: belijder (nl) m
• Finnish: tunnustaja (fi)
• German: Bekenner (de) m
• Greek: ομολογητής (el) m (omologitís)
• Hungarian: hitvalló (hu)
• Irish: dearbhóir m, coinfeasóir m
• Japanese: 表信者
• Polish: wyznawca (pl) m
• Portuguese: confessor (pt) m
• Russian: испове́дник (ru) m (ispovédnik)

priest who hears confession

• Belarusian: спавяда́льнік m (spavjadálʹnik), спаве́днік m (spavjédnik)
• Bulgarian: изпове́дник m (izpovédnik)
• Czech: zpovědník m
• Danish: skriftefader c
• Dutch: biechtvader (nl) m
• Finnish: rippi-isä
• French: confesseur (fr) m
• German: Beichtvater (de) m, Beichtiger (de) m
• Greek: πνευματικός (el) m (pnevmatikós)
• Hungarian: gyóntatópap
• Icelandic: játari m
• Irish: athair faoistine m, oide faoistine m
• Italian: confessore (it) m
• Macedonian: исповедник m (ispovednik), духовник m (duhovnik)
• Old English: sċrift m
• Polish: spowiednik (pl) m
• Portuguese: confessor (pt) m
• Russian: испове́дник (ru) m (ispovédnik)
• Slovak: spovedník m
• Spanish: confesante m or f
• Swedish: biktfader (sv) c
• Ukrainian: спові́дник m (spovídnyk)
• Welsh: periglor m

References

• Beccari, C. (1908), The Catholic Encyclopedia‎^[2], New York: Robert Appleton Company, retrieved 24 May 2009, Confessor

Catalan

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin cōnfessōrem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central) [kuɱ.fəˈso]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [koɱ.fəˈso]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [koɱ.feˈsoɾ]

Noun

confessor m (plural confessors, feminine confessora, feminine plural confessores)

1. (Christianity) confessor of the faith
2. confessor (priest who hears confessions)

   Synonym: confés

Related terms

• confessar

Further reading

• “confessor”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [kõːˈfɛs.sɔr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [koɱˈfɛs.sor]

Noun

cōnfessor m (genitive cōnfessōris); third declension

1. confessor of the Christian faith
2. martyr

Declension

Third-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	cōnfessor	cōnfessōrēs
genitive	cōnfessōris	cōnfessōrum
dative	cōnfessōrī	cōnfessōribus
accusative	cōnfessōrem	cōnfessōrēs
ablative	cōnfessōre	cōnfessōribus
vocative	cōnfessor	cōnfessōrēs

Descendants

• Catalan: confessor
• English: confessor
• French: confesseur
• Italian: confessore
• Portuguese: confessor
• Spanish: confesor

References

• “confessor”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• "confessor", in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)

Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin cōnfessōrem.

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /kõ.feˈsoʁ/ [kõ.feˈsoh]

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /kõ.feˈsoʁ/ [kõ.feˈsoh]
  • (São Paulo) IPA^(key): /kõ.feˈsoɾ/
  • (Rio de Janeiro) IPA^(key): /kõ.feˈsoʁ/ [kõ.feˈsoχ]
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /kõ.feˈsoɻ/

 

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /kõ.fɨˈsoɾ/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /kõ.fɨˈsoɾ/
  • (Southern Portugal) IPA^(key): /kõ.fɨˈso.ɾi/

• Hyphenation: con‧fes‧sor

Noun

confessor m (plural confessores, feminine confessora, feminine plural confessoras)

1. (religion) confessor (one who confesses faith in a religion, especially Christianity)
2. (Roman Catholicism) confessor (priest who hears confession)

Spanish

Noun

confessor m (plural confessores)

1. obsolete spelling of confesor