assistantadj.n.
/əˈsɪst(ə)nt/, U.S. /əˈsɪstnt/ A. adj.† 1. Standing or remaining by, present, accompanying. Obsolete.
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the world > space > place > presence > [adjective]
boundc1175
present1340
towarda1375
presentlya1425
assistant1485
presentiala1500
presentaneous1668
assisting1670
standing1788
on the spot1886
on-site1939
the world > relative properties > relationship > accompaniment > [adjective]
collateral1377
assistant1485
coincident1567
accompanying1600
concomitant1608
comitant1614
belonginga1616
concomitaneous1661
adjoint1727
associative1812
attended1846
herewith1917
1485 W. Caxton tr. Lyf St. Wenefryde 12 She rested not..to preche and enfourme them that were assistent with holy and blessid exhortacions.
1551 T. Cranmer Answer S. Gardiner 45 Christ hath promised in both the sacramentes to be assistant with vs.
1625 J. Hart Anat. Urines i ii. 21 These accidents are called assistant or accompanying.
1677 tr. A.-N. Amelot de La Houssaie Hist. Govt. Venice 42 They see the Senat assistant at the killing of a Bull on Holy-Thursday.
2. Present to help; aiding, helpful, auxiliary (to).
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the world > action or operation > easiness > aid, help, or assistance > [adjective]
lastfuleOE
helpinga1300
helplya1300
helpfulc1384
assistanta1400
succourablec1400
helpyc1440
aidant1449
adjutoryc1475
subsiduous1490
aidable1509
aidinga1525
aidful1535
adjuvant1574
adjuvable1598
assistful1600
auxiliary1605
recureful1606
seconda1616
succouring1616
coadjuvanta1625
adjutant1645
adjutorious1657
assisting1659
subventive1674
relievablea1693
subventitious1693
affording1873
succourful1898
a1400 Cov. Myst. 240 But angelys were to hym assystent.
c1465 Eng. Chron. (1856) 31 Stirid the peple to be assistent..to the..amendement of the myschiefs.
1587 R. Holinshed et al. Hist. Scotl. (new ed.) 378/1 in Holinshed's Chron. (new ed.) II Which by turnes should be assistant to the quéene.
c1720 W. Gibson Farriers New Guide i. v. 64 The third Pair are..very assistant in the Office of Chewing.
1857 T. P. Thompson Audi Alteram Partem (1858) I. xvii. 56 Animals assistant to man.
B. n.† 1. One who is present, a bystander; one who takes part in an assembly. Usually in plural. Obsolete.
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the world > physical sensation > sight and vision > one who sees > [noun] > one present at an event
assistant1483
attendanta1629
assister1705
1483 W. Caxton tr. Caton A iv b Thus shalt thou be honoured of thassistentis in thy companye.
1589 R. Greene Menaphon sig. Lv The assistants grieued to see [it].
1638 W. Chillingworth Relig. Protestants i. vi. §41. 363 Having your Service in such a language as the Assistants generally understand not.
1769 J. Hall-Stevenson Yorick's Sentimental Journey Continued IV. 27 It is not at all astonishing that every convivial assistant should go home cherry-merry.
1781 E. Gibbon Decline & Fall II. 11 The growing circumference was observed with astonishment by the assistants.
2. One who gives help to a person, or aids in the execution of a purpose; a helper, an auxiliary; a promoter; also, a means of help, an aid.
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the world > action or operation > easiness > aid, help, or assistance > [noun] > that which or one who helps or means of help
redeeOE
helpc893
bootOE
friendOE
lithc1275
helpera1300
a helping handa1300
helpingc1330
bieldc1352
succour?a1366
supplementc1384
easementa1398
succourer1442
aid?1473
assister1535
assistant?1541
adminicle1551
mystery1581
second1590
auxiliatory1599
subsidium1640
suffragan1644
facilitation1648
adminiculary1652
auxiliary1656
auxiliar1670
ally1794
Boy Scout1918
assist1954
facilitator1987
society > occupation and work > worker > workers according to status > [noun] > assistant
assistant?1541
adjacent1600
help1645
helper1686
aide1762
asst1782
tenter1894
offsider1904
runabout1957
ancillary1962
gofer1967
the world > action or operation > easiness > aid, help, or assistance > [noun] > that which or one who helps or means of help > a helper
helpend971
recurera1382
undertaker1382
bootc1420
profitera1425
suffrage1445
supplier1456
aidant1477
aider1483
adjutor1531
benefactor1532
assistant?1541
servant1562
aid1569
adjument1576
adjuvant1583
familiar1583
adjoint1603
opitulator1624
adjutator1832
the world > action or operation > easiness > aid, help, or assistance > [noun] > subsidiary or contributory help > a subsidiary help > person
helpa1325
yeoman1363
suffragana1450
assistant?1541
under-minister1543
under-aid1579
under-fellowa1586
adjutant1622
deacon1642
under-builder1651
subsidiary1661
under-instrument1673
helper1686
understrappera1704
âme damnée1797
bottle holder1816
acolyte1829
cad1836
bellows-blower1865
sidekick1893
side-kicker1894
Watson1927
stooge1955
?1541 R. Copland Guy de Chauliac's Questyonary Cyrurgyens i. sig. Bijv What condycions ought the assystentes..of the pacyent haue?
a1631 J. Donne Serm. (1958) IX. 53 Those great assistants of the Reformation, Luther, and Calvin.
1773 H. Chapone Lett. Improvem. Mind II. 167 Make use of numbers and rhymes merely as assistants to memory.
1851 H. Spencer Social Statics v. §5 Unpractised assistants at surgical operations often faint.
3. spec.† c. Obsolete name of the ‘superintendent’ among Wesleyan Methodists.
a. A deputy judge.
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society > law > administration of justice > one who administers justice > judge > [noun] > deputy
assistant1611
magistrate judge1849
1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues Assessoriat, th' office..of a Judge Laterall, Assistant, or Assesseur.
a1640 J. Fletcher & P. Massinger Spanish Curat iii. i, in F. Beaumont & J. Fletcher Comedies & Trag. (1647) sig. F v/1 The Assistant sits to morrow.
1685 in Antiquary Oct. (1881) 149/2 Mr. Maior and 4 or 5 of ye Aldermen, with as many of ye assistants as please.
b. An official auxiliary to the Father-General of the Jesuits.
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society > faith > church government > monasticism > religious superior > [noun] > Jesuit > assistant
adjutant general1667
assistant1679
minister1728
1679 I. Bargrave tr. F. Micanzio Exact Discov. Myst. Iniquity 7 And there is Choice made of some other Fathers, who..are called his Assistants..One is stiled the Assistant of France, a second of Spain.
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society > faith > church government > member of the clergy > clerical superior > various Christian superiors > [noun] > Methodist > Wesleyan
assistanta1791
a1791 J. Wesley Wks. (1872) VIII. 319 The Assistant [is] that Preacher in each Circuit who is appointed..to take charge of the societies and the other Preachers therein.
d. Court of Assistants n. certain senior members who manage the affairs of the City of London Companies.
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1829 J. B. Heath Acct. Company Grocers 27 The Courts of Assistants..were compelled to hold their meetings..at various places.
e. A shop assistant (see shop n., adj., and int.).
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society > trade and finance > selling > seller > [noun] > shopkeeper > shopworkers
shopman1662
window clerk1770
clerka1790
shop attendant1813
shoppie1818
shop assistant1821
shop-walker1825
counter-jumper1829
show-woman1848
assistant1853
counterman1853
counter-skipper1858
floor-walker1876
floor manager1887
window man1887
frontsman1896
inworker1909
lot attendant1934
sales clerk1934
1853 E. C. Gaskell Ruth I. iv. 110 Her eldest son..was an assistant in a draper's shop.
1908 Rep. Truck Committee (Cmd. 4442–4) 132/2 The smartest assistant is the one who can sell to customers worthless goods.
Compounds
In combinations (either as adjective, or as noun in apposition). assistant curate: see curate n. 1b; assistant master, assistant mistress (in a school); assistant professor (chiefly U.S.); assistant stage-manager.
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the world > action or operation > easiness > aid, help, or assistance > [adjective] > auxiliary or subsidiary > as assistant to a person
assistant1710
Watsonian1940
society > education > teaching > teacher > schoolteacher or schoolmaster > [noun] > assistant teacher
submasterc1450
usher1512
undermaster1561
under-usher1561
pedagogue?1566
underteacher1581
janitor1584
hypodidascal1625
under-doctora1649
assistant master1872
usheress1879
TA1969
society > leisure > the arts > performance arts > the theatre or the stage > the staging of a theatrical production > people concerned with theatrical productions > [noun] > assistant stage manager
assistant stage-manager1898
ASM1918
1710 London Gaz. No. 4735/3 The Office of Assistant-Master of the Ceremonies.
1844 Queen's Regulations & Orders Army 289 The Assistant-Surgeon's Tent is to be pitched in its vicinity.
1851 C. Cist Sketches & Statistics Cincinnati 304 In September..he received the appointment of assistant professor of mathematics.
1872 Schoolmaster 6 Jan. 4/1 Wanted..an Assistant Master, Ex P.T., for Canal-street Wesleyan Schools, Derby.
1872 Schoolmaster 6 Jan. 4/1 Wanted, in a Mixed School, an ex P.T., as Assistant Mistress.
1898 L. Merrick Actor-Manager iii. 38 He was to be described on the playbills as ‘Assistant Stage-manager’.
1902 A. C. Benson Schoolmaster 29 As to corporal punishment, the doubtful privilege of dispensing it is, at my own School, not conceded to the assistant-masters.
1905 N.Y. Evening Post 25 Dec. The additional class is that of associate professors. All assistant professors under the old order were made ‘associate’.
1952 M. McCarthy Groves of Academe (1953) iv. 74 All these, on the instructorial or assistant-professor level, constituted the bulk of Jocelyn's faculty.
Draft additions January 2009
Philosophy (in Aristotelian and scholastic phliosophy). Of a form (form n. 4a): being a separate entity supervening on and animating the thing it determines. Now rare (chiefly historical).Opposed to informant adj. [In form assistent, assistent form after post-classical Latin forma assistens (a1280).]
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1632 R. Winterton tr. J. Gerhard Golden Chaine Divine Aphorismes v. 60 Sometimes they [sc. angels] appeare in bodily shapes, and yet they are not corporeall: For they are but the Forms Assistent [L. formae assistentes] and not Forms Informant of the bodies which they assume.
1659 T. White Middle State Souls 156 They make the soul, in man, to be an actual entity, which clearly renders it assistent, not informent and constitutive of one only substance or thing.
1665 G. Havers & J. Davies tr. Another Coll. Philos. Conf. French Virtuosi cxii. 111 A Form is that which gives either Being or Motion. When it gives only Motion, 'tis call'd an Assistent Form, as that which moves the Heavens.
1710 tr. P. Bayle Hist. & Crit. Dict. I. 428/1 Divers Moderns have own'd, that according to Aristotle's Hypothesis, the Understanding of all Men is one and the same Substance, but that some among those Moderns will have it to be as an assistant form to all Men.
1890 Cent. Dict. at Informant Informant form,..a form which affects the specific essence of a thing..and is not merely extrinsically joined to it, as an assistant form, producing only motion.
1997 Early Sci. & Med. 2 260 Averroes..designated the sentient and vegetative part of the soul as an informed form, and the rational soul as an assistant form.
Draft additions June 2016
assistant referee n. Sport an official who assists the referee; esp. in Association Football one positioned on the touchline, who indicates when the ball is out of play or if a player is offside; cf. linesman n. 3.
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1875 Bell's Life in London 17 Mar. 5/6 Having appealed to the referee at the close of the fishing, and obtaining the same answer as I did from the assistant referee, I appeal to you to know if the referee had the power to alter the rules after the tickets had been sold.
1903 World To-day Mar. 402/2 The assistant referee shall be appointed by the referee and shall assist him in deciding questions of foul play, and shall report same to the referee.
1966 Times 30 May 4/4 After a 20-minute delay and much talk, the tournament's assistant referee finally persuaded the British pair back on court.
1994 Agence France Presse (Nexis) 25 Feb. Blatter..said that linesman [sic] had to be given increased powers and be known as assistant referees to boost their status.
2011 S. Rutherford Women's Work, Men's Cultures vii. 157 The headlines are full of the dismissal of a veteran Sky sports presenter for being caught off air ridiculing a young female assistant referee, claiming that women know nothing about the offside rule.
Draft additions March 2019
assistant bishop n. Christian Church a bishop appointed to act as an assistant to a diocesan bishop, archbishop, etc.; a suffragan or auxiliary bishop.In later use chiefly in the Anglican Church outside the Church of England (where the usual term is suffragan bishop); cf. note at suffragan n. 2.
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1629 A. Leighton Appeal to Parl. 40 It is cleare from the statute of Henr. 8 by which it is provided that the Archbishop cannot take to himself a suffragane or assistant Bishop..but by the Kings especiall graunt.
1713 tr. L. E. Du Pin Compend. Hist. Church II. ix. xi. 45 [Pope Nicholas I, in a letter directed to Rudolphus Archbishop of Bourges] defends the ordinations made by the Assistant-Bishops.
1826 Vermont Chron. 18 Aug. 75/1 Bishop White of Philadelphia, has called a special convention for the purpose of considering the expediency of electing an assistant Bishop.—Bishop White is aged and in feeble health.
1901 Church Missionary Rev. Apr. 265 Not till 1877 were Bishops Caldwell and Sargent consecrated as Assistant Bishops to the Bishop of Madras.
2009 S. Pickard Theol. Found. Collaborative Ministry Pref. p. vii In this book I draw upon my experience in ministries of various kinds.., in university chaplaincy.., in theological education.., and more recently as an assistant bishop in the Diocese of Adelaide.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1885; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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