Pastor

How to spell pastor

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce pastor

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does pastor mean?

1. nounA minister or member of the clergy in charge of a church or congregation.

Pastor in a sentence

• The pastor led the morning service at the local chapel.

• Families across the town invited the new pastor to dinner.

Where does pastor come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes directly from the Latin pastor, meaning 'shepherd' or 'herdsman', which was built on the verb pascere, 'to feed' or 'to lead to pasture'. The image is of a herder who feeds and guards a flock, and early Christian writers borrowed that picture to describe a minister who tends a congregation as a shepherd tends sheep. English took the word in around the 1300s, partly through Old French, in the religious sense of a spiritual guide. The very same root survives in the everyday words 'pasture' and 'repast' (a meal), all tracing back to the idea of feeding. Knowing the link to 'pasture' helps fix the spelling: the ending is the Latin agent ending -or, not the more common English -er.

How the word is built

• past- (from Latin pascere: to feed, to graze)
• -or (agent suffix: one who does)