Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A priest: often used in old writers as the title of a supposed Christian king and priest (Prester John) of a medieval kingdom. The belief in the existence of such a ruler in some undetermined part of Asia appeared in the twelfth century. From the fourteenth century the seat of the supposed Prester John was placed in Abyssinia, and this belief was held down to the close of the middle ages.
- n. A meteor.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. obsolete A meteor or exhalation formerly supposed to be thrown from the clouds with such violence that by collision it is set on fire.
- n. obsolete One of the veins of the neck when swollen with anger or other excitement.
- n. obsolete A priest or presbyter.
Etymologies
- Old French prestre. See priest. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Called prester by the Greeks, typhoon by the Romans, timmins by the Persians, and dragons de mer by the French, waterspouts annihilated ships and massacred sailors.”
“The prester is an asp that moves quickly with its mouth always open and emitting vapour...”
“I am prester mast (Prestre mace, maistre passe.), Prish, Brum!”
Five books of the lives, heroic deeds and sayings of Gargantua and his son Pantagruel
“Now a day was incomplete without its disclosure about this or that bishop or prester or whatnot having fa'thered a child on his sister, having poisoned his pre'decessor, or having embezzled a fortune to buy his male mistress a forty-eight-room cabin in the country.”
“Nasidius by a prester which caused his form to swell to an unrecognisable size, and so on through the list of serpents, each episode closing with a brilliant epigram which clenches the effect.”
The History of Roman Literature From the earliest period to the death of Marcus Aurelius
“[60] In allusion to the swelling caused by the _prester_, Non ausi tradere busto, Nondum stante modo, _crescens fugere cadaver_!”
The History of Roman Literature From the earliest period to the death of Marcus Aurelius
“Au prester couzin germaine, au rendre fils de putaine”
“Catholiques de la fidelité desquels il croye se pouvoir asseurer, il pourra les laisser dans leurs habitations après leur avoir fait prester serment de fidelité à sa Majesté ....”
“Mais d* en prester, foi de marchand, encore: fit j 'ay promis, foi de - Clement, d' en prendre.”
Internet Archive: Illustrations of Sterne: With Other Essays and Verses
“books, fiction, prester john valued contributions:”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘prester’.
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11250 more...
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Cloudy
with a chance of mizzle
puff, nebulous, fog, overcast, becloud, bedim, taint, befog, dapple, mottle, sully, pother and 83 more...
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the name of the rose
pleasing words I encounter whilst reading umberto eco's novel of the same name.
matins, lauds, prime, terce, sext, nones, vespers, compline, usurper, simoniac, heresiarch, malefactor and 230 more...
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Thrown - about tossed - Words
bal-; bol-; -bol; -ble and incau(gh)tious others
ballistic, ballad, symbol, bolide, ballet, problem, ball, parabola, parable, amphibole, boule, diabolical and 184 more...
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Rose
Words encountered in The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
leucrota, cynophales, polycaudate, dragopods, hydrophora, hoopoe, parander, hypnales, prester, spectafici, saurian, scitales and 3 more...
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Scrabs
aiblins, ibex, ixia, ilex, xyst, zoea, prester, fovea, barniest, cwm
Tweets
Looking for tweets for prester.
fbharjo a pre-star or mythical meteor thrown from the clouds Sep 7, 2009
agreatnotion n. a priest (OSPD) Dec 10, 2006