confessor

What it means

1. One who confesses faith in Christianity in the face of persecution, but who is not martyred.

   Long before Edward I, the English had a King Edward who they considered a martyr and a King Edward who they considered a confessor.

   1 more example

   Confessors provided the troubled Church with an alternative sort of authority based on their sufferings, particularly when arguments began about how and how much to forgive those Christians who had given way to imperial orders – the so-called ‘lapsed’.

   2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin, published 2010, page 174

2. One who confesses to having done something wrong.

   Near-synonym: confessant

   Synonyms: confessant

3. Eastern OrthodoxyCatholicismA priest who hears confession and then gives absolution.

   Synonyms: father confessor

In a sentence

Long before Edward I, the English had a King Edward who they considered a martyr and a King Edward who they considered a confessor.

Where it comes from

1. Latincōnfessor
2. Anglo-Normanconfessour
3. Middle Englishconfessor
4. Englishconfessor

From Middle English confessor, confessour, from Anglo-Norman confessour, and its source, Latin cōnfessor, from cōnfiteor (“confess, admit, acknowledge”). By surface analysis, confess + -or.