abbacy

[ ab-uh-see ]

noun,plural ab·ba·cies.
  1. the rank, rights, privileges, or jurisdiction of an abbot.

  2. the term of office of an abbot.

Origin of abbacy

1
1400–50; late Middle English abbacie, abbat(h)ie<Late Latin abbātia (cf. abbey), equivalent to abbāt- (see abbot) + -ia-ia

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use abbacy in a sentence

  • This sentence applied to no less than two archbishoprics and twelve bishoprics, besides innumerable abbacies.

    The Thirty Years War, Complete | Friedrich Schiller
  • These monasteries were abbacies, as indeed were all houses for nuns founded before the Conquest.

    Woman under Monasticism | Lina Eckenstein
  • Sixty-four Benedictine nunneries date their foundation from after the Conquest, only three of which were abbacies.

    Woman under Monasticism | Lina Eckenstein
  • Several of the Benedictine nunneries founded after the Conquest owed their foundation to abbacies of men.

    Woman under Monasticism | Lina Eckenstein
  • The same process was carried out with regard to abbacies, and indeed with all important places of ecclesiastical preferment.

British Dictionary definitions for abbacy

abbacy

/ (ˈæbəsɪ) /


nounplural -cies
  1. the office, term of office, or jurisdiction of an abbot or abbess

Origin of abbacy

1
C15: from Church Latin abbātia, from abbāt- abbot

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012