acolyte

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The Word of the Day for August 9 is: 

acolyte   \AK-uh-lyte\   noun
     1 : one who assists a member of the clergy in a liturgical service by 
performing minor duties 
    *2 : one who attends or assists : follower 

Example sentence:
     The lawyer arrived with one of her acolytes, an eager young attorney who 
looked at her with obvious admiration.

Did you know?
     Follow the etymological path of "acolyte" back far enough and you'll 
arrive at "keleuthos," a Greek noun that means "path" and that is itself the 
parent of "akolouthos," an adjective that means "following." "Akolouthos" 
traveled from Greek, leaving offspring in Medieval Latin and Anglo-French, and 
its descendant, "acolyte," emerged in English in the 14th century. Originally, 
it was exclusively a term for a person who assisted a priest at Mass, but by 
the 19th century, "acolyte" had acquired additional meanings, among them 
"attendant body, satellite" (a meaning used in astronomy) and "attendant 
insect" (a zoological sense), as well as the general meaning "assistant" or 
"sidekick."

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.