coarb
nounEtymology Borrowed from Irish comharba.
1
Historical The successor to the founder of a religious institution.
- These abbots were sometimes bishops; but whether they were bishops or of lower rank in the ministry, their authority was inherent in their office of coarb.1920, H. J. Lawlor, St. Bernard of Clairvaux's Life of St. Malachy of Armagh:
2
Historical The head of one of the families composing an old Irish sept.
- Derived terms
- coarbship