eldership
Part of speech: noun
Morphological type: derivation
Etymology: From elder + -ship. The Lithuanian sense is a calque of Lithuanian seniūnija.
Base: elder
Affixes: -ship
Inflected forms:
form: elderships
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: The position of being elder or senior; seniority, precedence of birth, primogeniture.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: Primogenitura, or eldership of birth, was greatly respected by God.
My claim to her by Eldership I prove.
Her sister addressed her always by the word Child, with an air of eldership.
Though Truth and Falsehood are as twins ally’d, There’s eldership on Truth’s delightful side.
It followeth now to entreat how the world began to receive rule and government, which, while it had scarcity of people, underwent no other dominion than paternity and eldership.
[By Roman law] all children inherited their father’s estate in equal portions, without distinction of sex or eldership.
gloss: The personality of an elderly person.
pos: noun
tags: countable
nonce-word
uncountable
examples: So irresistible to their elderships to be flattered.
The pilgrim answered that he sought admittance to the intent that he should be found of service. Whereat there brake forth exceeding much laughter; at the subsiding whereof one Shootbolt demanded whereabout should be his eldership’s age?
But our most serious embarrassment, now that our good friend and co-laborer of the Zion’s Herald has spoken in defense of the presiding elders, would seem to be that we have done the abstract “elder” an injustice. If so we are sorry, and beg his eldership’s pardon. Still before receiving our sentence we desire to call attention to the fact that while speaking in the former address of the bishop and his cabinet this statement was made in compliment of presiding elders: — […]
gloss: The office or position of elder in a church.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: The office of eldership is equallie distributed betweene the bishop and the minister.
He was deposed from his Eldership.
When I came first to Caulds I sought to prevail upon him to accept the eldership, but he aye put me by, and when I heard his tale I saw that he had done wisely.
gloss: The collective body of (ecclesiastical) elders; a body or court of elders, a presbytery.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: That gyft, which was geuen thee by prophecie with the laying on of the handes, by the Eldership.
They that tyrannize not over, but be subject to their particulare elderships.
Do you not lay in one scale the minister against the whole eldership in the other?
As office-bearers in the church we are an unholy and an unworthy eldership.
All the courts of the Church might be called either Presbyteries or Elderships.
gloss: The smallest administrative division in Lithuania, equivalent to a ward.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: The local governmental system in Lithuania has passed through several changes since the restoration of independence, and its future is still being debated. There are three levels of local government: apskritys (plural apskritis, usually translated as “counties”); municipalities; and elderates, sometimes given as elderships.
Article 1 of the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania states that the State of Lithuania is an independent democratic republic. The territory of Lithuania is divided into ten counties. Countries^([sic]) are subdivided into sixty municipalities. Municipalities may be divided into elderships.
Municipal councils can decide and divide municipalities into smaller administrative units called elderships. The activities of the eldership are financed from the municipal budget and are headed by an elder who is a career civil servant. There are currently 545 elderships in Lithuania (Šaparnienė et al., 2021).
Translations: