Deacon

How to spell deacon

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce deacon

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does deacon mean?

1. nounAn ordained minister or lay officer who ranks below a priest and assists with services and practical church work.

Deacon in a sentence

• The deacon read the morning lesson before the sermon began.

• After years of service, he was ordained as a deacon in the parish.

Where does deacon come from?

Language of origin: Greek

The word comes from the Greek diakonos, which literally meant 'servant', 'attendant', or 'one who waits at table', and was used in the early church for those who carried out practical ministry on behalf of the congregation. Greek passed the word to Latin as diaconus, the title for a low-ranking minister who assisted the priest. Old English borrowed it as diacon, and the spelling settled into the modern 'deacon' over the medieval period. The same diakonos root sits behind the word 'diaconate' and is distantly connected to ideas of service rather than authority. The slightly tricky spelling, with the 'ea' sounding like a long 'ee' and a final '-con' that reduces to an unstressed schwa, is a leftover of that long journey from Greek through Latin into English.

How the word is built

• deac- (from Greek diakonos: servant, attendant)
• -on (noun ending)