Word Origin Atlas

Exact historical dictionary sense

Minister in Webster's 1913 dictionary

The 1913 record labels minister as verb. Its source-bounded etymology and selected historical definition appear below.

WEBSTER 1913verb
Minister

[OE. ministren, OF. ministrer, fr. L. ministrare. See Minister, n.]

Cross-verified historical sense
The source text may be outdated. The page preserves that historical boundary.
Cross-verified 1913 record
Headwordminister
Part of speechverb
Historical etymology[OE. ministren, OF. ministrer, fr. L. ministrare. See Minister, n.]
Selected historical definitionTo furnish or apply; to afford; to supply; to administer.
Signed record IDwebster1913-minister-verb-4ff0a25b74f0
Source locatorCIDE.M, paragraph 6950; Gutenberg eBook 665
Edition-scoped answerNot earliest-attestation proofNot modern consensus
Independent historical textProject Gutenberg section 665Signed structural record sourceGNU GCIDE 0.54 archive
Quick answer

In Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), "minister" is labeled verb. Its etymology is recorded as: "[OE. ministren, OF. ministrer, fr. L. ministrare. See Minister, n.]" The selected historical definition says: "To furnish or apply; to afford; to supply; to administer."

Project Gutenberg Webster 1913 plus signed GNU GCIDE 0.54 Exact cross-verified historical record reviewed 2026-10-04

What this answer proves

One named sense in one historical dictionary edition.

The answer reports the selected headword, part of speech, etymology, definition, and source locator as transcribed in the cross-verified 1913 record.

Evidence boundaryIt does not establish the earliest attestation or a complete borrowing chain.It does not claim current scholarly consensus or a modern dictionary definition.Historical dictionary text may be obsolete, incomplete, inaccurate, or offensive by modern standards.

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