choirchild

English

Etymology

From choir +‎ child.

Noun

choirchild (plural choirchildren)

1. A child who sings in a choir.
   • 1967, Stephen Rhys, King Palmer, “Human Relationships and Official Bodies”, in ABC of Church Music, Hodder and Stoughton, page 158:

     A figure should be agreed upon, and there should be some definite payment for choirchildren (under sixteen), teenagers (sixteen–twenty-one), and adults.

   • 1982 spring, Gillisann Haroian, “Bittersweet”, in Ararat, volume XXIII, number 2, issue number 90, Armenian General Benevolent Union, page 36:

     They would walk to the tiny, crowded Church of myrrh and frankincense, of altars replete with white lillies^[sic] and red carnations crowning a painting of the mother and child, of bearded priests with deepthroated voices booming resonant liturgies that mixed with the soprano chants of the choirchildren.

   • 1996, Anne Atkins, chapter 12, in On Our Own, Sceptre, →ISBN, page 81:

     She had been to Evensong in the Chapel once or twice, as a child, with her grandfather, but since his death had forgotten about those services, with the vigorous resonance of Cranmer’s prose, and the almost uncanny, almost divine sound of sixteen choirboys, or choirchildren as they were now, their voices shimmering, almost effulgent, in that vast, ethereal building.

   • 2005, Michel Manson, “Children’s Literature, Religion and Modernity in the Latin Countries (France, Italy, Spain)”, in Jan De Maeyer, Hans-Heino Ewers, Rita Ghesquière, Michel Manson, Pat Pinsent, Patricia Quaghebeur, editors, Religion, Children’s Literature, and Modernity in Western Europe, 1750-2000, Leuven University Press, →ISBN, page 188:

     To replace it, L’Écho du Noël [The Echo of Christmas] was then launched in 1906 and accompanied by Le Sanctuaire [The Sanctuary], for choirchildren, in 1911, as well as Bernadette, which was first issued in 1914 and was meant for young girls in schools and youth fellowships.

Hyponyms

• choirboy
• choirgirl