Meanings
plural ekklesiasts
- alternativeAlternative spelling of ecclesiast.
[O]ur competitors are as weak as ourselves. We save the Thebans, and they save us. It would be worth the while of either to provide pay for the ekklesiasts of the other.
1876, Isokrates, translated by R[ichard] C[laverhouse] Jebb, “On the Peace [Or. viii.]”, in The Attic Orators from Antiphon to Isaeos, volume II, London: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, chapter XVI (Isokrates.—Works.), section II (On the Internal Affairs of Greece), page 1872 more examples
Aristotle indicates that ekklesiasts (members of the popular assembly) and legislators are not the same people when he says that “the decision of the legislator is prospective and universal rather than partial, while the ekklesiast and the dikast [lay judge in popular courts] decide about what is immediately present and definite” (Rhet I.1.1354b5-8).
1997, Paul Bullen, “Lawmakers and Ordinary People in Aristotle”, in Leslie G. Rubin, editor, Justice v. Law in Greek Political Thought (Politikos; 3), Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, →ISBN, page 239The ekklesia clearly was not meeting according to the festival calendar, for any allotted meetings could not have been used up by the third of Mounichion. Ekklesiasts drew pay for attendance; so there must have been a budget which could easily have been exhausted by the meetings in Elaphebolion.
2001, W[illiam] Kendrick Pritchett, “The Athenian Prytany Calendar and Ekklesias”, in Athenian Calendars and Ekklesias (Αρχαία Ελλάς […]; 8), Amsterdam: J.C. Gieben, →ISBN, page 194
Origin
- Ancient Greekἐκκλησιαστής
- Englishekklesiast
Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek ἐκκλησιαστής (ekklēsiastḗs). By surface analysis, ekklesia + -ast.
More words from Ancient Greek
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
ekklesiast. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ekklesiast
“ekklesiast.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ekklesiast. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “ekklesiast,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ekklesiast.
Source: ekklesiast on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.