Meanings
feminine singular emerita · masculine plural emeriti · masculine plural rare emerituses · feminine plural emeritae
- not comparableoftenpostpositionalRetired, but retaining an honorific version of a previous title.
pontiff emeritus
5 more examples
emeritus professor professor emeritus professors emeritae
I must confess that in such an answer I see nothing worthy of a philosopher; and should rather have looked for it from a literary petit-maître than from an emeritus Professor of Moral Philosophy.
1823, Thomas De Quincey, “Letters to a Young Man whose Education has been Neglected. Letter V.”, in Letters to a Young Man whose Education has been Neglected; and Other Papers (De Quincey’s Works; XIV), London: James Hogg & Sons, published 1860, →OCLC, page 83Number and Description of Professorships. 1. An emeritus professorship of obstetrics.
1837, Annual Report of the Regents of the University of the State of New-York, Albany, N.Y.: […] Croswell, van Benthusyen and Burt, page 38Paul is not a whit behind any of the apostles, or “Pastor Emerituses,” and is ready to meet all things on all occasions.
1903, Peter Albert Petrie, “Christianity and Creeds”, in “Ye Shall Know the Truth, and the Truth Shall Make You Free.”, Cincinnati, Oh.: The Standard Publishing Company, page 120Thus far, no teachers' retirement fund, as such, has been established. The board has thus far met this problem by electing teachers unable to perform regular service as teachers emeriti, although this is only a temporary arrangement and committees of the teachers and the board are now considering the feasibility of the establishment of the retirement fund.
1912, Charles S. Foos, “[Reports of City, Borough and Township Superintendents.] Reading.”, in Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania: For the Year Ending July 3, 1911 (Official Document; no. 5), Harrisburg, Pa.: C. E. Aughinbaugh, […], →OCLC, page 250
plural emeriti · plural emerituses
- A (male) person who is retired from active service or an occupation, especially one who retains an honorific version of a previous title.
Should he take the international presidency in a few years he would be in line for the AFL-CIO National Executive Council, now replete with emerituses.
1963 April 22, Victor Riesel, “Inside Labor—Power’s Star Rides on Union Vote”, in Omaha World-Herald, 98th year, number 176, Omaha, Neb., page 3ᴹ, column 45 more examples
Martin Engels said: “I am not posted on dyke-bridges, but if it is a Dutch scheme there may be something in it. That engineer made a mistake by calling the city officials emerituses. He should not call people names if he wants the Municipal Council to build his twenty-four-million-dollar bridge. If the Tammany organization wants to build a dyke-bridge, I’m for it.”
1900 September 21, “Dyke-Bridge Proposed. Engineer Santi Wants to Unite Manhattan and Richmond Boroughs—Tammany Men’s Views.”, in The New York Times, volume L, number 15,820, New York, N.Y., page 11, column 7Now, we have no criticism for college presidents and emerituses as such. A man may be all that and still be a pretty good fellow—whatever the effect might be on his character and happiness. But there is one thing certain—no one man can know it all.
1914 February 15, “The Case of Dr. Eliot”, in The Topeka Daily Capital, volume XXXVII, number 362, Topeka, Kan., page 8 B, column 1A “State-of-Mind” called Winter Park, / Where genius thrives, a brilliant spark, / Emerituses tramp thru dark / To hear illustrious profs remark / On “culchar,” tone and style. / So, hark, / While dogs, in tongues semantic, bark!
1938 April 12, “How Time Flies (From Reporter-Star Files)”, in Orlando Reporter-Star, volume 52, number 47, Orlando, Fla., poem “Rhapsodies!”, stanza I, page four, column 3Oh you, veteran crime reporter, you grave old usher, you once popular policeman, now in solitary confinement after gracing that school crossing for years, you wretched emeritus read to by a boy!
1955 September 15, Vladimir Nabokov, chapter 8, in Lolita, Paris: The Olympia Press […], →OCLC, page 30And so, another well-deserving name has been added to Central Florida’s list of emerituses, perhaps the most distinguished lineup of names in the area.
1961 December 22, Charlie Wadsworth, “Hush Puppies”, in Orlando Sentinel, volume 77, number 222, Orlando, Fla., pages 10—C, column 2 - rareplural emeritusesAn honorific version of a previous title.
He was also a visiting professor of chemical engineering, and received an Emeritus in 1967.
1976, A History of Temple, New Hampshire, 1768-1976, Dublin, N.H.: William L. Bauhan, →ISBN, page 4735 more examples
With a string of “emerituses” behind his name, last of which was acquired with the Welfare society resignation, [George Q.] Sheppard now lives in retirement in his home at The Hill, 722 King street.
1941 May 31, Bob Zissa, “Typewriter Becomes His Best Pal: ‘It’s Easy to Learn to Loaf’, Declares Retired Hill Master”, in Pottstown Mercury, volume 10, number 210, Pottstown, Pa., page one, column 7NOW THE VENERABLE and distinguished First National Bank bossman has joined a distinguished league. To my knowledge, he shares his honors with two other distinguished Orlandoans — Dr. J. Powell Tucker, pastor emeritus of the First Baptist Church, and J. C. Brossier, editor emeritus of the Orlando Evening Star. And now that Dr. and Mrs. Tucker have returned home from a month’s vacation trip, the good doctor can sit down today with Mr. Allen and Mr. Brossier and they can talk about their emerituses.
1961 August 15, Charlie Wadsworth, “Hush Puppies”, in Orlando Sentinel, volume 77, number 93, Orlando, Fla., pages 4—B, column 1Marshall Keeble, president emeritus of Nashville Christian Institute, and A. M. Burton, president emeritus of Life & Casualty Insurance, have more in common than their age (85), their frequent meetings or their emerituses.
1964 March 29, George Barker, “Brother Keeble and the Lord”, in The Nashville Tennessean Sunday Magazine, page 6, column 1NOW THE holder of numerous emerituses and honorary titles in recognition of her long service, Mrs. [Chalmers W.] Hutchison [a.k.a. Bessie Hutchison] still has not retired from her lively interest in all things that are “moving” nor from watching the contemporary scene.
1966 September 19, Pauline Naylor, “90 Years Don’t Fetter Interest”, in Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 86th year, number 231, page 3-B, column 1After receiving her emeritus in 1976 she has lectured at the University of Berkeley, and University of Vienna.
1981, First International Congress on the History of Turkish-Islamic Science and Technology, 14-18 September 1981, page 18
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectivehonorably retired from assigned duties and retaining your title along with the additional title ‘emeritus’ as in ‘professor emeritus’
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Latinēmeritī
- Proto-Indo-European*(s)mer-“to allot; to assign”
- Latinēmeritus“(having been) earned, (having been) merited; (having been) served, having done one’s service”
- Englishemeritus
The adjective is a learned borrowing from Latin ēmeritus (“(having been) earned, (having been) merited; (having been) served, having done one’s service”), the perfect passive participle of ēmereō (“to earn, merit; to gain by service; (military) to complete one’s obligation to serve, to serve out one’s time”), from ex- (prefix meaning ‘away; out’) + mereō (“to deserve, merit; to acquire, earn, get, obtain; to render service to; to serve”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)mer- (“to allot; to assign”)). The noun is derived from the adjective. The plural form emeriti is borrowed from Latin ēmeritī.
More words from Latin, Proto-Indo-European
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Afrikaans emeritus
- emeritusperson who is retired from active service or an occupation, especially one who retains an honorific version of a previous title
Catalan emèrit
- emèritretired, but retaining an honorific version of a previous title
Chinese Mandarin 名譽退休 /名誉退休, 榮譽退休 /荣誉退休
- 名譽退休 /名誉退休 (míngyù tuìxiū)retired, but retaining an honorific version of a previous title
- 榮譽退休 /荣誉退休 (róngyù tuìxiū)retired, but retaining an honorific version of a previous title
- 榮休 /荣休 (róngxiū)person who is retired from active service or an occupation, especially one who retains an honorific version of a previous title
Czech emeritní
- emeritníretired, but retaining an honorific version of a previous title
Danish emeritus
- emeritusretired, but retaining an honorific version of a previous title
Dutch emeritus
- emeritusretired, but retaining an honorific version of a previous title
Esperanto emerito
- emeritoperson who is retired from active service or an occupation, especially one who retains an honorific version of a previous title
Finnish emeritus, emeritus
- emeritusretired, but retaining an honorific version of a previous title
- emeritusperson who is retired from active service or an occupation, especially one who retains an honorific version of a previous title
French émérite
- émériteretired, but retaining an honorific version of a previous title
German emeritiert, emeritus
- emeritiertretired, but retaining an honorific version of a previous title
- emeritusretired, but retaining an honorific version of a previous title
Greek ομότιμος
- ομότιμος (omótimos)retired, but retaining an honorific version of a previous title
Hebrew בדימוס
- בדימוס (b'dimos)retired, but retaining an honorific version of a previous title
Hungarian emeritus, nyugalmazott
- emeritusretired, but retaining an honorific version of a previous title
- nyugalmazottretired, but retaining an honorific version of a previous title
Italian emerito
- emeritoretired, but retaining an honorific version of a previous title
Japanese 名誉
- 名誉 (meiyo)retired, but retaining an honorific version of a previous title
Latin ēmeritus
- ēmeritusretired, but retaining an honorific version of a previous title
Polish honorowy
- honorowyretired, but retaining an honorific version of a previous title
Portuguese emérito
- eméritoretired, but retaining an honorific version of a previous title
Romanian emerit
- emeritretired, but retaining an honorific version of a previous title
Russian почётный
- почётный (počótnyj)retired, but retaining an honorific version of a previous title
Spanish emérito
- eméritoretired, but retaining an honorific version of a previous title
Swedish emeritus, emeritus
- emeritusretired, but retaining an honorific version of a previous title
- emeritusperson who is retired from active service or an occupation, especially one who retains an honorific version of a previous title
- emeritaperson who is retired from active service or an occupation, especially one who retains an honorific version of a previous title
Tagalog higlingkurin
- higlingkurinretired, but retaining an honorific version of a previous title
Welsh emeritws
- emeritwsretired, but retaining an honorific version of a previous title
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with emeritus
All rhymes →Anagrams
Cite this entry
emeritus. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/emeritus
“emeritus.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/emeritus. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “emeritus,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/emeritus.
Source: emeritus on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.