emeritus
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ɪˈmɛɹɪtəs/
note: weak vowel merger
ipa: /əˈmɛɹətəs/
rhymes: -ɛɹɪtəs
ipa: /ɪˈmɛɹɪtaɪ/
note: weak vowel merger
ipa: /əˈmɛɹətaɪ/
Forms: form: emerita
form: emeriti
form: emerituses
form: emeritae
Etymology: 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.
Senses: examples: text: emeritus professor    professor emeritus    professors emeritae
text: pontiff emeritus
text: 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.
ref: 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 83:
text: Number and Description of Professorships. 1. An emeritus professorship of obstetrics.
ref: 1837, Annual Report of the Regents of the University of the State of New-York, Albany, N.Y.: […] Croswell, van Benthusyen and Burt, page 38:
text: Paul is not a whit behind any of the apostles, or “Pastor Emerituses,” and is ready to meet all things on all occasions.
ref: 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 120:
text: Thus 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.
ref: 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:
text: Flappers, ex-flappers, flapper emerituses! He had them eating out of his hand, jumping through hoops.
ref: 1926 November 28, Jane Corby, “Georgie Had Too Much Love: Lord Byron, as a Sheik, Was Deserving, It Is Claimed, Of More Sympathy Than Ordinary Men”, in Sunday Eagle Magazine, Brooklyn, N.Y., page four, column 1:
text: “If we have more mayor emerituses,” said Commissioner Frank Colbourn, “we might as well round up George C. Pardee, M. C. Chapman and many other distinguished ex-mayors of Oakland.”
ref: 1931 June 27, “Project for Mayor Emeritus Dropped”, in Oakland Tribune, volume CXIV, number 178, Oakland, Calif., page 5, column 1:
text: Trustees of the University of North Carolina today accepted the voluntary retirements of Dr. Eugene Clyde Brooks, vice-president in charge of State College, and Dr. J. I. Foust, vice-president for the Women’s college, and made them president emerituses of their respective institutions at salaries of $4,000 a year.
ref: 1934 June 5, “Brooks And Foust Resign As U. N. C. Vice-Presidents: […]”, in The Daily Times-News, volume 46, number 83, Burlington, N.C., page one, column 1:
text: Friday, March 26 at 8 p. m. a meeting of the Board of Administration, Advance for Christ Visitors and Deacon Emerituses and their families.
ref: 1954 March 25, “Sunday’s Sermon”, in The Osceola Record, eightieth year, number 29, Osceola, Neb., page [2], column 4:
text: But there are also two women professors emeritae, nine clinical professors, 24 lecturers, three visiting lecturers, nine associates, 55 instructors, one tutor, 84 teaching fellows, 121 women members of research staffs, 39 assistants, and variously talented holders of otherwise unclassifiable posts.
ref: 1958, Harvard Alumni Bulletin, volume 61, Boston, Mass.: […] [F]or the Harvard Alumni Association by the Harvard Bulletin, Inc., →OCLC, page 376:
text: “I think these [parking] lots are the best thing that’s happened to Orlando insofar as the continued growth of the city is concerned. / “They affect everyone, from janitors to chairman emerituses,” smiled [Claude] Wolfe with an obvious reference to First National Bank board chairman emeritus Linton Allen, who was nearby.
ref: 1961 November 25, Charlie Wadsworth, “Hush Puppies”, in Orlando Sentinel, volume 77, number 195, Orlando, Fla., pages 4—C, column 1:
text: Director emerituses are Mrs. Effie Vines Gordon, Mrs. E. S. Boice and Rep. Harold Cooley.
ref: 1965 May 19, “Red Cross Disaster Director Heard; Harper New Chairman”, in The Evening Telegram, fifty-fifth year, number 218, Rocky Mount, N.C., page 1B, column 2:
text: There were enough Judges — J. P.’s, Municipal Judges, Superior Judges, Super Judge Emerituses, and Appellate Judges — to hold a coronation of a King.
ref: 1973 January 6, Frank Moore, “With a Grain of Salt”, in Redlands Daily Facts, 83rd year, number 6, Redlands, Calif., page 12, column 2:
text: According to the recently amended firemen’s and policemen’s retirement act, the auditor said two chief emerituses (one for each department) are currently over retirement age, 65, but their positions are considered active.
ref: 1975 December 24, Sandy Simmons, “Phenix City Overspent Expenditures”, in The Columbus Enquirer, 148th year, number 147, Columbus, Ga., page B-1, columns 3–4:
text: The men join 52 other Realtor Emerituses in the country and are the only Macon men ever honored with the designation.
ref: 1976 January 31, “Thomas H. Hall III Is Realtor Emeritus”, in Saturday Telegraph and News, 150th year, number 31, Macon, Ga., page 5A, column 3:
text: “There are professor emerituses from around the world who come to the Napa Valley to visit. They could be giving lectures and short courses which would be intensely attended by viticulturiests^([sic]) and wine-makers,” said [Richard] Steltzner.
ref: 1981 July 23, Nancy Stenson, “Problem Of Funding: College Pressing Plans For Wine Program”, in The Napa Register, 119th year, number 280, page 2, column 2:
text: I read in the church bulletin that the preacher of the day, filling the pulpit in the absence of a full-time pastor, was Dr. James A. Langley, executive director editor emeritus of the D.C. Baptist Convention. A title of nobility, editor emeritus is. I expected the best from his sermon. Sure enough, we were in the Book of Micah, Chapter 6, Verse 8, as Dr. Langley noted, often considered “the very essence of the Bible.” “And what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” The words may appear so simple, Dr. Langley said, “but they are so demanding.” And while not every Baptist preacher would attempt mixing MarK Twain with Micah, such is the leeway granted editor emerituses.
ref: 1999 September 22, Joe Murray, “On the Road: Right at home at the First Baptist”, in Longview News-Journal, page 2A, columns 4–5:
text: Linda Lambert is founder of the Center for Educational Leadership at California State University, Hayward, where she is professor emeritus.
ref: 2003, Linda Lambert, Leadership Capacity for Lasting School Improvement, Alexandria, Va.: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, →ISBN, back cover:
text: JOAN SUTHERLAND is a Zen teacher and a translator of Chinese and Japanese. She is a co-founder of Pacific Zen Institute, where she is now senior teacher emerita.
ref: 2004, Shambhala Sun, volume 13, Halifax, N.S.; Boulder, Colo.: Nalanda Foundation and Vajradhatu International, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 226:
text: [Suzanne] Keller, the first woman to be granted tenure at Princeton, is one of a small but growing number of professors emeritae.
ref: 2007 April 18, Laura Fitzpatrick, “Retired faculty enjoy their ‘permanent sabbatical’”, in Marilyn H. Marks, editor, Princeton Alumni Weekly, volume 107, number 12, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 12, column 2:
text: Retired professors emeriti, junior or adjunct faculty, community college instructors, and transplanted or unknown scholars with exotic names, for example, may find themselves disadvantaged in the competition for textbook authorship (though not necessarily for other kinds of books).
ref: 2008, Mary Ellen Lepionka, “Interest a Publisher in Your Manuscript”, in Writing and Developing Your College Textbook: A Comprehensive Guide to Textbook Authorship and Higher Education Publishing, 2nd edition, Gloucester, Mass.: Atlantic Path Publishing, →ISBN, page 53:
text: U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu is krewe captain, replacing former U.S. Rep. Jim McCrery. He and former U.S. Sen. John Breaux have been named Captain Emerituses, said Joe Broussard, an organizer, of Lafayette.
ref: 2009 January 18, Maggie Martin, “D.C. Mardi Gras events set”, in The Times, page 10D, column 1:
text: Pope Benedict XVI will keep the name Benedict XVI and become the Roman pontiff emeritus or pope emeritus, the Vatican announced on Tuesday, putting an end to days of speculation on how the pope will be addressed once he ceases to be the leader of the world’s 1.1 billion Roman Catholics on Thursday.
ref: 2013 February 26, Gaia Pianigiani, Elisabetta Povoledo, “Benedict XVI to be known as emeritus in retirement”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 31 Jan 2023:
text: Applied to the decision to resign, I read the formula this way: It was fitting, because Pope Benedict [XVI] realized he was losing the strength necessary for his arduous office. He could do it, because long before, he had already thought out theologically, in a groundbreaking way, the possibility of popes emeriti in the future. And so then he did it.
ref: 2020, Georg Gänswein, “The Expanded Papacy”, in Michael Miller, transl., How the Catholic Church Can Restore Our Culture, Irondale, Ala.: EWTN Publishing, →ISBN:
glosses: Retired, but retaining an honorific version of a previous title.
Related terms: word: emerit
word: emerited
word: erstwhile
word: ex-
word: ex
word: former
word: honorary