sick comforter, noun phrase

Origin:
Translation of Afrikaans sieketrooster.
sieketrooster.
1881 ‘G.M.T.’ in Cape Monthly Mag. IV. May 269There was no resident clergyman at the Cape. Services were occasionally held by the chaplains of ships, and a sermon was read every Sunday and on special occasions by the Sick Comforter.
1921 H.J. Mandelbrote tr. of O.F. Mentzel’s Descr. of Cape of G.H. I. 113Every evening after the lamps are lighted, a reader or sick-comforter, comes to the hospital and recites the evening prayers; all those who can do so must attend.
1927 C.G. Botha Social Life in Cape Col. 48There were two classes of clergy which the Company provided. To the important stations clergymen or ‘predikanten’ were appointed, and to the smaller places men of a lower rank called sick-comforters or sick-visitors, ‘ziekentroosters’.
1934 M.E. McKerron Hist. of Educ. 15The sick comforter (Siekentrooster) was the first type of teacher at the Cape.
1969 D. Child Yesterday’s Children 14He was the son of Willem Wijlant, the ‘sick-comforter’. The baby’s baptism had to be deferred until a predikant came ashore from a visiting Dutch ship.
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Afrikaans
sibilo, nounn.sickness, nounn.
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