eldership

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)The position of being elder or senior; seniority, precedence of birth, primogeniture.

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

   “My claim to her by Eldership I prove.”

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

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

   “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.”

2. (countable, nonce-word, uncountable)The personality of an elderly person.

   “So irresistible to their elderships to be flattered.”

3. (countable, uncountable)The office or position of elder in a church.

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

   “He was deposed from his Eldership.”

   “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. (countable, uncountable)The collective body of (ecclesiastical) elders; a body or court of elders, a presbytery.

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

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

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

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

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

5. (countable, uncountable)The smallest administrative division in Lithuania, equivalent to a ward.

   “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.”

   “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.”

   “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).”