vardapet
A highly educated archimandrite in the Armenian Apostolic Church tradition who holds a Doctorate in Theology.
At the hour appointed most of the brethren met at the house of the vartabed; but found no one there to accuse or oppose them. They now had considerable conversation with the vartabed, and gave him some wholesome advice.
Where it comes from
Borrowed from Armenian վարդապետ (vardapet), from Old Armenian վարդապետ (vardapet, “teacher; vardapet”), from a South-Western Iranian word of the form *vard(a)-pet (literally “master of students; master of work”), ultimately from Proto-Iranian *warj- (“to do; to work; to till the land”) (from Proto-Indo-European *werǵ- (“to make”), whence Old Persian vard- (“to work”) in the given name 𐎠𐎼𐎫𐎺𐎼𐎮𐎡𐎹 (Artavardiya-)) + Proto-Iranian *pati- (from Proto-Indo-European *pótis (“master; ruler”), whence Old Armenian պետ (pet, “chief, commander”), Parthian *pet).
Adapted from the Wiktionary entry vardapet (CC BY-SA 4.0).