Etymology

sexton

sex·ton
S1E1X8T1O1N1

Today it means: A church official who looks after a church building and its graveyard and may act as a gravedigger and bell ringer. Full definition →

Old French segrestien ← Medieval Latin sacristanus ← Latin sacer
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The story

  1. Latin · derived fromsacer“sacred”
  2. Medieval Latin · derived fromsacristanus
  3. Old French · derived fromsegrestien
  4. English todaysexton

From Old French segrestien, from Medieval Latin sacristanus, based on Latin sacer (“sacred”). Doublet of sacristan.

Words from the same roots

Latinsacer all →

sacrilegioussacristan

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.