churchwarden

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a lay officer responsible for the property, administration, and secular affairs of an Anglican parish

   The churchwarden arranged repairs to the roof and presented the annual parish accounts.

2. 2
   noun

   a tobacco pipe with a very long stem, short for churchwarden pipe

   He smoked a clay churchwarden beside the fireplace.

From Middle English chirchewardeyn, a compound of church + warden. The parish office is medieval. The pipe sense, recorded much later, probably alludes to the long pipes associated in popular imagery with churchwardens keeping watch.

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