Other forms: chaplains
A chaplain is a clergyman serving a school, a hospital or the forces. An army chaplain, the hospital chaplain, appoint a chaplain.
The job is to be there for everybody in the institution rather than for a congregation, and modern hospital chaplaincy teams often include people of several faiths and none. Military chaplains are non-combatants under the Geneva Conventions.
1nounchaplainA clergyman serving a school, a hospital or the forces.
“The hospital chaplain sat with the dying man and prayed with his family.”
chaplain is a clergyman.
Medieval Latin cappellanus was the keeper of the cappella, the cloak of Saint Martin, kept as a relic in a small shrine.
Latin
cappellānus
Old French
chapelain
Middle English
chapeleyn
English, today
chaplain
From Middle English chapeleyn, from Old French chapelain, from Medieval Latin -, Latin cappellānus, from cappella. a doublet of capelin. Displaced handprēost.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA