sexton: [14] Sexton and sacristan [14] are doublets: that is to say, they started out as the same word, but have diverged over the centuries. Both come from medieval Latin sacristānus, a derivative of sacrista ‘person in charge of holy vessels’ (which in turn was based on Latin sacer ‘holy’, source of English sacred), but whereas sacristan was borrowed directly from Latin, sexton came via the roundabout route of Anglo- Norman segerstaine. => sacred, sacristan, saint