eldership

From elder +‎ -ship. The Lithuanian sense is a calque of Lithuanian seniūnija.

• enPR: ĕlʹdərshĭp, IPA^(key): /ˈɛldɚʃɪp/

eldership (countable and uncountable, plural elderships)

1. The position of being elder or senior; seniority, precedence of birth, primogeniture.
   • 1549, R. Parsons, Confer. Success, volume I, chapter vi, page 128:

     Primogenitura, or eldership of birth, was greatly respected by God.

   • 1667, Dryden, Ind. Emperor, chapter i, page 11:

     My claim to her by Eldership I prove.

   • 1754, Richardson, Grandison, volume I, chapter v, page 19:

     Her sister addressed her always by the word Child, with an air of eldership.

   • 1786, Thomas Parnell, The Poetical Works of Dr. Thomas Parnell:

     Though Truth and Falsehood are as twins ally’d, There’s eldership on Truth’s delightful side.

   • 1829, Walter Raleigh, The works of sir Walter Ralegh:

     It followeth now to entreat how the world began to receive rule and government, which, while it had scarcity of people, underwent no other dominion than paternity and eldership.

   • 1838, Arnold, Hist. Rome, volume I, page 274:

     [By Roman law] all children inherited their father’s estate in equal portions, without distinction of sex or eldership.

2. (Can we verify⁽⁺⁾ this sense?) (nonce word, as a mock title of honour) The personality of an elderly person.
   • 1748, Richardson, Clarissa, volume IV, published 1811, page 90:

     So irresistible to their elderships to be flattered.

3. The office or position of elder in a church.
   • 1577, Harrison, England, II.v, published 1877, chapter i, page 109:

     The office of eldership is equallie distributed betweene the bishop and the minister.

   • 1655, Fuller, Ch. Hist., volume IX, chapter vi, § 52:

     He was deposed from his Eldership.

   • 1902, John Buchan, “The Outgoing of the Tide”, in The Watcher by the Threshold, and other tales:

     When I came first to Caulds I sought to prevail upon him to accept the eldership, but he aye put me by, and when I heard his tale I saw that he had done wisely.

4. The collective body of (ecclesiastical) elders; a body or court of elders, a presbytery.
   • 1557, “First Epistle to Timothy”, in New Testament, Geneva, chapter iv, verse 14:

     That gyft, which was geuen thee by prophecie with the laying on of the handes, by the Eldership.

   • 1634–1646, Row, Hist. Kirk, published 1824, page 66:

     They that tyrannize not over, but be subject to their particulare elderships.

   • 1721, Wodrow, Corr., volume II, published 1843, page 568:

     Do you not lay in one scale the minister against the whole eldership in the other?

   • 1828, E. Irving, Last Days, page 151:

     As office-bearers in the church we are an unholy and an unworthy eldership.

   • 1885, Edgar, Old Ch. Life Scotl., page 189:

     All the courts of the Church might be called either Presbyteries or Elderships.

5. (Can we verify⁽⁺⁾ this sense?) The smallest administrative division in Lithuania, equivalent to a ward.

   Synonym: elderate

   • 2010, Clive Carpenter, “Lithuania: Government”, in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland (World and its peoples. Europe; 8), New York: Marshall Cavendish, →ISBN, →LCCN, page 1,096/2:

     The local governmental system in Lithuania has passed through several changes since the restoration of independence, and its future is still being debated. There are three levels of local government: apskritys (plural apskritis, usually translated as “counties”); municipalities; and elderates, sometimes given as elderships.

   • 2022, Indrė Žvaigždinienė, “General Introduction: General Information” (chapter 1), in Environmental Law in Lithuania, 2nd edition, Alphen aan den Rijn: Kluwer Law International, →ISBN, unnumbered page:

     Article 1 of the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania states that the State of Lithuania is an independent democratic republic. The territory of Lithuania is divided into ten counties. Countries are subdivided into sixty municipalities. Municipalities may be divided into elderships.

   • 2023 February, Katarína Vitálišová, Jaroslav Dvořák, “Differences and Similarities in Local Participative Governance in Slovakia and Lithuania”, in Gilles Rouet, Thierry Côme, editors, Participatory and Digital Democracy at the Local Level: European Discourses and Practices (Contributions to Political Science), Cham: Springer, →DOI, →ISBN, page 134:

     Municipal councils can decide and divide municipalities into smaller administrative units called elderships. The activities of the eldership are financed from the municipal budget and are headed by an elder who is a career civil servant. There are currently 545 elderships in Lithuania (Šaparnienė et al., 2021).

• James A. H. Murray et al., editors (1884–1928), “Eldership”, in A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), volume III (D–E), London: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 73, column 2.