In reading the news, I came across a political article that kept talking about the prime minster, the minster of this, or the minster of that — obviously speaking about people — I felt the need to explore the difference in this word confusion minister vs minster.
Yeah, I know politicians can be stodgy, but there is a definite difference between a living person or an action and a stationary building.
Minister can be a religious leader (as a noun) or to help or to administer (as a verb).
Minster is strictly a large, really large, church, usually one that had formerly been part of a monastery.
Exploring Later . . .
When you are addressing a minister or knowing when to capitalize that title or abbreviating their title, you may want to explore “Honorifics, To Cap or Not to Cap” (also “Capitalization“) or “Abbreviations“.
Word Confusions . . .
. . . started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noire for you from either end.
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| Minister | Minster |
|---|---|
The Prime Minister Arrives in Egypt by Number 10 is under the CC BY 2.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons. |
York Minster Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of Saint Peter, York, England, Britain, by Bryan . . . is under the CC BY-SA 2.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons. |
| Part of Grammar: | |
| Noun; Verb, intransitive & transitive
Plural for the noun: ministers Third person present verb: ministers |
Noun
Plural: minsters |
| Noun: [Also minister of religion] A member of the clergy, especially in Protestant churches
[Government, Politics, & Diplomacy; in certain countries] A head of a government department
[Archaic] A person or thing used to achieve or convey something Verb, intransitive:
To perform the functions of a religious minister Verb, transitive: Act as a minister of religion
|
Noun: [British English] A large or important church, typically one of cathedral status in the north of England that was built as part of a monastery Any large or important church, such as a cathedral |
| Examples: | |
| Noun: There’s a couple here to consult with the minister. They have appointed a new minister general to the Order of Friars Minor. Rishi Sunak is Britain’s prime minister. The president dispatched a minister plenipotentiary to negotiate the treaty. The Angels are ministers of the Divine Will. Verb, intransitive: Will these women be permitted to minister as priests? The missions in Guatemala minister to the needs of the villages. Verb, transitive: The pastor arrived in time to minister the last rites. Bishops in England were faced with a loss of priests to minister the sacraments. |
Noun: York Minster is a cathedral that had been built as part of a monastery. Both Westminster Abbey in London and Southwell Minster in Nottinghamshire are minsters. It is dominated by its minster, the collegiate church of St Peter and St Paul. A little distance away the spire of the old minster soared towards the clouds. This dependence is demonstrated in the subsidiary status of their churches, which were daughter churches to the minster. As well as major settlements with minsters, hamlets and farms may well have had their own small churches. |
| Derivatives: | |
| Adjective: ministerial, unministered Averb: ministerially Noun: ministership, subminister, underminister Verb, intransitive: preminister |
|
| History of the Word: | |
| Middle English in the sense a person acting under the authority of another, from the Old French ministre (noun), ministrer (verb), from the Latin minister meaning servant, from minus meaning less. | Old English mynster, via ecclesiastical Latin from the Greek monastērion, from monazein meaning live alone, from monos meaning alone. |
C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!
Satisfy your curiosity about other Word Confusions on its homepage or more generally explore the index of self-editing posts. You may also want to explore Book Layout & Formatting Ideas, Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, Linguistics, Publishing Tips, the Properly Punctuated, Writing Ideas and Resources, and Working Your Website.
Resources for Minister versus Minster
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Apple Dictionary.com
Dictionary.com: minister
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English: minster
Pinterest Photo Credits
Inside Ulm Minster is Roughlyspeaking‘s own work which is under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license and Pastor Günter Harig courtesy of the Stadtarchiv Kiel is under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license. Both are via Wikimedia Commons. The rights holder for the latter is Gesellschaft für Kieler Stadtgeschichte.
