communicant
2
9.9
- noun
- /kəˈmjunɪkənt/
- Jargon
:
comulgante
- I didn't know you were a daily communicant.
- new communicants
- church communicants
- ninety communicants
Examples
-
Florence Enderby stepped aside to allow her two fellow communicants to pass.
Fiction book (1994) -
The feeling is of someone taking communion: with Bembry the minister and Malcolm the communicant.
Fiction book (1992) -
"The last of the communicants were returning to their chairs or walking out into the cold, clear night."
Fiction book (1990) -
If the Anglican Church is to maintain its influence, it must reach its communicants regularly.
Academic text (1996) -
But among the 400 communicants listed on the books, surely there must have been many true Christians.
-
Hundreds of nonconformists were defecting to establishment church services, many becoming formal communicants.
Academic text (2006) -
As a devoted Christian, she is a regular communicant at her local church, attending every Sunday for Holy Communion.
-
The priest greeted each communicant with a smile as they approached to receive the Eucharist during the service.
-
After preparation classes, they became new communicants and participated in their first Holy Communion last week.
How Involved
- Jargon
2
9.9
- Archaic
295
2.4
68
3.0
305
2.8
Surface Forms
Morphology
communicant = communicate (opaque) = communic + ant
The suffix '-ant' typically forms nouns indicating a person who performs an action, but the specific religious context of 'communicant' is not directly derivable from 'communicate'.
Etymology
The word communicant comes from the Latin verb communicare, which means 'to share' or 'make common', and is the same root behind community and communicate. So a communicant is someone who 'shares' in the church's Holy Communion.