Pastophorus

//pastəˈfɔːɹəs// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A type of lesser priest in ancient Egypt, originally serving as a doorkeeper to a temple. historical

Etymology

From Latin pastophorus, from Hellenistic Ancient Greek παστοφόρος (pastophóros), from παστός (pastós, “ceremonial curtain”) + -φόρος (-phóros, “bearer”), a loose calque of Demotic Egyptian jrj-ꜥꜣ, from Egyptian jrj-ꜥꜣ (“doorkeeper”), from jrj (“keeper”) + ꜥꜣ (“door”). An old interpretation of the Greek term as ‘shrine-bearer’ is now rejected.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.