Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A person who assists the celebrant in the performance of liturgical rites.
  • noun A devoted follower or attendant.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One who waits on a person; an attendant; an assistant.
  • noun In the Roman Catholic Church, one ordained to the fourth and highest of the minor orders, ranking immediately below the subdeacon. See orders.
  • noun In astronomy, an attendant or accompanying star or other heavenly body; a satellite.
  • noun Sometimes written acolyth, and formerly also acholithite, acolythe, acolythist, acolothist.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Eccl.) One who has received the highest of the four minor orders in the Catholic church, being ordained to carry the wine and water and the lights at the Mass.
  • noun One who attends; an assistant.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun ecclesiastical One who has received the highest of the four minor orders in the Catholic Church, being ordained to carry the wine, water and lights at Mass.
  • noun An attendant, assistant or follower.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun someone who assists a priest or minister in a liturgical service; a cleric ordained in the highest of the minor orders in the Roman Catholic Church but not in the Anglican Church or the Eastern Orthodox Churches

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English acolit, from Old French, from Medieval Latin acolytus, from Greek akolouthos, attendant; see anacoluthon.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Late Latin acolythus, acoluthus, from Ancient Greek ἀκόλουθος ("follower, attendant"): compare French acolyte

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Examples

  • It was Craig himself who introduced the term acolyte to The Twelve Detectives as a way to refer to their assistants.

    'The Paris Enigma' 2008

  • But you will find yourself summarily booted O-U-T of the DD club if you do that, since no actual scientist or sciency-acolyte is allowed to belong to both per this debate about telic design in life.

    Assessing Causality 2008

  • Police can only assume an acolyte is at large, a maniac basing his attacks on the twisted medical techniques of the madman he so admires.

    The Apprentice: Summary and book reviews of The Apprentice by Tess Gerritsen. 2002

  • Warren is most definitely not a [Robert] Rubin acolyte.

    HUFFPOST HILL - JULY 27TH, 2010 The Huffington Post News Team 2010

  • For America's most famous libertarian, an Ayn Rand acolyte, that is more than troubling.

    Business and financial news - CNNMoney.com 2010

  • But look more closely and it is clear that change is afoot in this mineral-rich former Soviet acolyte which is on the cusp of a mining boom that has led investors to describe Mongolia as the "Kuwait of Central Asia".

    Latest Articles The Telegraph 2010

  • "I did; but when I found the priest would not assist me at first, and admit that the acolyte was a girl, I preferred to let him think I was deceived in giving a fortune to another, and leave it to his own conscience to permit it or frustrate it.

    On the Frontier Bret Harte 1869

  • Maybe we could get him to add an 'acolyte' to the group from his local chapter. "

    Mistborn Sanderson_Brandon 2006

  • Greenspan, meanwhile, was so shaken that he recanted his belief in the rational market, quite something from an Ayn Rand acolyte.

    Matthew Yglesias » Where Are the Obama Boosters? 2010

  • The deacon ascends to the altar with the burse in hand, and extends the corporal; at the same time, an acolyte places the Missal on the Gospel side, with a purification vessel and purificator for the purification of the priest's fingers after Communion.

    Compendium of the 1955 Holy Week Revisions of Pius XII: Part 4.2 - Good Friday, The Adoration of the Cross and the Rite of the Presanctified 2009

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