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{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
In [[Scottish English]], a '''stickit minister''' is a candidate for [[holy orders]] who either fails to pass the church's examination, or who gives an unsatisfactory [[sermon]] during his probationary period. ''Stickit minister'' is a [[colloquial]] [[idiom]] that connotes disgrace or dishonour. The [[Scottish Gaelic]] equivalent is '''''ministear-maide'''''.

There are two possible origins: One is, as the Scottish Gaelic version ''maide'' implies, that the minister is "wooden" and stick like, or alternatively that it refers to hesitancy, or "sticking". (''stickit'' is the [[Scots language|Lowland Scots]] for stuck<ref name="lowland-dict">{{cite book| last=MacKay |first=Charles |authorlink=Charles Mackay (author) |title=A Dictionary of Lowland Scotch | url=https://archive.org/details/adictionarylowl03mackgoog |date=1888 |location=London |publisher=Whittaker and Co. |oclc=3568058}}</ref>). [[John Jamieson]] quotes an example: "Puir lad! The first time he tried to preach, he stickit his sermon",<ref name="lowland-dict" /> and further glosses: "A speech is stickit when the speaker hesitates and is unable to proceed".<ref name="lowland-dict" />

The stickit minister was a recurring theme in [[Scottish literature]] during the 18th and 19th centuries; the most notable example is [[S. R. Crockett]]'s short story "The Stickit Minister" (1893).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Crockett |first1=Samuel Rutherford |title=The Stickit Minister and Some Common Men |date=1893 |publisher=T Fisher Unwin |location=London |url=https://archive.org/details/stickitminister00crociala/stickitminister00crociala/ |access-date=22 June 2025}}</ref> A theme of this work is the humanity of Christianity. The stories offer examples of good ministerial behaviour and bad, and they theorise the role of faith in confronting hypocrisy, whether in others or in oneself.{{fact|date=June 2025}}

The term is not related to the [[Religion of the Yellow Stick]].{{or?|date=June 2025}}

==References==

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[[Category:Protestantism in Scotland]]
[[Category:Scottish literature]]
[[Category:British English idioms]]

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