emeritus

play

noun emer·i·tus \i-ˈmer-ə-təs\

Definition of emeritus

plural

emeriti

play \i-ˈmer-ə-ˌtī, -ˌtē\

: a person retired from professional life but permitted to retain as an honorary title the rank of the last office held

emeritus was our Word of the Day on 11/29/2015. Hear the podcast!

Recent Examples of emeritus from the Web

Gov. Byron Mallott, Juneau Mayor Ken Koelsch, Rep. Don Young and Steve Haycox, professor emeritus of history at the University of Alaska Anchorage.

— tamara ikenberg, Alaska Dispatch News, "A new William Seward statue will be unveiled in Juneau, scars and all", 1 July 2017
Jordan Atkins, a graduate of Raytown High School, was awarded a $5,000 Comcast Founders scholarship, named for Ralph J. Roberts, founder and chairman emeritus of Comcast Corporation.

— kansascity, "Three of 12 Comcast scholarship winners are from Lee’s Summit", 28 June 2017
Since zebra mussels only arrived in Texas in 2009, more study is needed, said Robert McMahon, professor emeritus of biology at the University of Texas at Arlington.

— bill hanna, star-telegram, "Invasive zebra mussel populations may explode in North Texas", 27 June 2017
The level of secrecy in crafting the Senate's health care bill has not been seen since before World War I, according to esteemed Senate historian emeritus Donald Ritchie.

— jack brewster, Time, "The Retired Senate Historian Said the Health Care Law Breaks With a Century of Tradition", 20 June 2017
John Rowe, chairman emeritus for Exelon and co-chair of the coalition, and Glenn Tilton, ex-chairman of United Airlines, are also on board.

— robert reed, chicagotribune.com, "Business pushes Rauner to sign bill to protect immigrants", 15 June 2017
Brill, 65, is a professor emeritus of clinical anesthesiology and perioperative medicine at UCLA.

— CBS News, "Child organ donor's death under investigation by Los Angeles police", 13 June 2017
Morton Keller is a professor emeritus of history at Brandeis University.

— julian e. zelizer, The Atlantic, "Is It Time for the U.S. to Rein in the Presidency?", 9 June 2017
Schwartz lives in Del Mar and is an emeritus professor at UC San Diego,

— gary robbins, sandiegouniontribune.com, "Renowned anthropologist Ted Schwartz donates his papers to UC San Diego", 8 June 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'emeritus'. Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

First Known Use of emeritus

circa 1701

Other Forms of Address Terms

appellation, beatitude, brethren, esquire, sire, sous

emeritus

adjective emer·i·tus

Definition of emeritus

1 : holding after retirement an honorary title corresponding to that held last during active service
2 : retired from an office or position professor emeritus —converted to emeriti after a plural professors emeriti

See emeritus defined for English-language learners

See emeritus defined for kids

Recent Examples of emeritus from the Web

Speakers brought to campuses traditionally tend to lean to the left politically, says Donald Downs, a UW-Madison emeritus political science professor known for his First Amendment work.

— lillian price, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Assembly bill on UW free speech threatening expulsion set for vote amid First Amendment debate", 20 June 2017
An emeritus professor of psychology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Staub said the courage of individuals who helped his family survive in the 1940s sparked his interest in the topic.

— emily lane, NOLA.com, "In 'EPIC' effort, New Orleans police work to stop officer misconduct before it happens", 14 June 2017
Samuel Walker, an emeritus professor at the University of Nebraska Omaha who has studied policing, said experience working as a monitor is the most important qualification a team can have, and that local ties can undermine a monitor's independence.

— ian duncan, baltimoresun.com, "Baltimore civil rights monitor applications present a choice: Local knowledge or national expertise", 14 June 2017
Paul Bew, emeritus professor of history at Queens University Belfast, said many senior DUP members and party cadres, including their leader, are Church of Ireland members who once belonged to the Ulster Unionists.

— ed o’loughlin, The Seattle Times, "U.K. election: How a forgotten Northern Ireland party became ‘kingmaker’", 10 June 2017
The report was researched and written by David Holman, Samuel Kissinger and Robert Hammer, 2016 Ohio University graduates who worked with center CEO Richard Vedder, an emeritus professor of economics.

— cliff pinckard, cleveland.com, "The cleveland.com news quiz for Friday, 06/09/2017", 9 June 2017
Carl DeVito, an emeritus faculty in the mathematics department at the University of Arizona in Tucson, has proposed a language based on plausibly universal scientific concepts.

— NBC News, "Here's How We Might Talk with Space Aliens", 9 June 2017
Paul Ekman, now an emeritus professor of psychology at the University of California.

— jacek krywko, Ars Technica, "The premature quest for AI-powered facial recognition to simplify screening", 2 June 2017
In 2015 and 2016, the company made at least $254,000 in campaign contributions to state Democrats and Republicans, according to an analysis by Kent Redfield, an emeritus professor of political science at the University of Illinois at Springfield.

— lisa schencker, chicagotribune.com, "Illinois examining Blue Cross' treatment of consumers for first time in nearly 30 years", 2 June 2017

Did You Know?

The adjective emeritus is unusual in two ways: it's frequently used postpositively (that is, after the noun it modifies), and it has a plural form—emeriti—when it modifies a plural noun in its second sense. If you've surmised from these qualities that the word is Latin in origin, you are correct. Emeritus, which is the Latin past participle of the verb emereri, meaning "to serve out one's term," was originally used to describe soldiers who had completed their duty. (Emereri is from the prefix e-, meaning "out," and merēre, meaning "to earn, deserve, or serve"—also the source of our English word merit.) By the early 18th century, English speakers were using emeritus as an adjective to refer to professors who had retired from office. The word eventually came to be applied to other professions where a retired member may continue to hold a title in an honorary capacity.