ostiary

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin ostiārius, from ostium (“door, entrance”). See usher, which may be a doublet.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɒsti.əɹi/, /ˈɒst͡ʃəɹi/

Noun

ostiary (plural ostiaries)

1. (archaic) The mouth of a river; an estuary.
   • 1650, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC:

     the river of Nilus hath seven ostiaries, that is, by seven channels disburdened itself into the sea

2. One who keeps the door, especially the door of a church; a porter.

   Synonym: ostiarius

   • 1647, Nathaniel Bacon, An historicall discourse of the uniformity of the government of England:

     Ostiaries; which used to ring the bells, and open and shut the Church-doors.

   • 1987, Gene Wolfe, chapter XXV, in The Urth of the New Sun, 1st US edition, New York: Tor Books, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 149:

     So arrayed I stepped at last from my door and was saluted as before by my monstrous ostiaries.

References

• “ostiary”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.