compurgator
compurgator noun: a character witness in canon law who swore an oath that the accused was innocent.
Noun
compurgator (plural compurgators)
- A character witness in canon law who swore an oath that the accused was innocent.
- If a wise woman fell under suspicion from the authorities her neighbours might rally to her defence, providing compurgators in court, or drawing up certificates testifying to her innocence.1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society, published 2012, page 244
- An ‘oath-helper’ in Anglo-Saxon or Germanic law who testified to the character of an accused person.
Forms of compurgator
| plural | compurgators |
|---|
Origin of compurgator
From Medieval Latin compurgator or Middle French compurgateur, from Latin compurgō (“to purify”).
Words formed from compurgator
Questions about compurgator
- What does compurgator mean?
- Compurgator means a character witness in canon law who swore an oath that the accused was innocent.
- What part of speech is compurgator?
- Compurgator is a noun.
- What is the plural of compurgator?
- The plural of compurgator is compurgators.
Words near compurgator in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: compurgator (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “compurgator.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/compurgator. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.