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”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kənˈfɛsə/, /ˈkɒnfɛs(ɔ)ə/, /ˈkɒnfɛsɔː/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /kənˈfɛsɚ/
• Rhymes: -ɛsə(ɹ)

Noun

confessor (plural confessors, feminine confessoress)

1. One who confesses faith in Christianity in the face of persecution, but who is not martyred.
   • 2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin 2010, p. 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’.

2. One who confesses to having done something wrong.
3. (Roman Catholicism) A priest who hears confession and then gives absolution

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)

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
• Irish: dearbhóir m, coinfeasóir m
• Japanese: 表信者
• Polish: wyznawca (pl) m
• Portuguese: confessor (pt) m

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
• French: confesseur (fr) m
• German: Beichtvater (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)
• 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^[1], New York: Robert Appleton Company, retrieved May 24, 2009, Confessor

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Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /konˈfes.sor/, [kõːˈfɛs̠ːɔr]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /konˈfes.sor/, [koɱˈfɛsːor]

Noun

cōnfessor m (genitive cōnfessōris); third declension

1. confessor of the Christian faith
2. martyr

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Case	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)

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Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin confessōrem.

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)

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Spanish

Noun

confessor m (plural confessores)

1. Obsolete spelling of confesor