A WORD A DAY.

Southland Times, Issue 21772, 29 July 1932, Page 6

A WORD A DAY.

MINISTER. Our word comes to us directly from the Latin minister, “servant”-—from the root minor, meaning “less.” In its diplomatic and ecclesiast'cal use, the word is applied to those who act under the bidding or authorization of another. From the earliest times, those who ministered were credited with performing services for the benefit of others, but as the opportunities to do things needful and helpful are on every hand to-day one does not need to wait for special authorization or for a special place or sanctuary to minister.

To minister is to be of service, not as an inferior in this day, but as one who is able to supply something desired or needed. In the most general sense, it may mean to contribute or to add. “Administer” is used specifically to refer to the supplying of something in a professional way. Min-is-ter is emphasized on the first syllable. Sound each i as in till, e as in maker. “And the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli.” STOKER. For F.A. One etymologist says that the word stoker is from the Irish si oca, a servant boy; a helper, adding that the final “a” of other languages often becomes “er” in English, as in Spanish daga, English dagger; Latin carta, Late Latin charta, English charter. But, the original stoker came from the Dutch, in which language it was a term used in brewing, and it appears in the dictionaries of Bailey and Phillips—“ One that looks after a fire, aiid some other concerns in a brew-house.” It is allied to the Middle Dutch stock, a stick, probably from the use by the stoker of a stock, or thick stick, in stirring a fire and arranging the logs, and this is the same word as the Old French estoquer, Middle English stoken, to stab. A stock rapier was a stabbing rapier, and so we see that from stabbing to stoking is but a step.