"office or post of a chaplain," 1745, from chaplain + -cy.
Entries linking to chaplaincy
chaplain n.
mid-14c., "minister of a chapel," from Old French chapelein "clergyman" (Modern French chapelain), from Medieval Latin cappellanus "clergyman," literally "custodian of (St. Martin's) cloak;" see chapel.
It replaced late Old English capellane (from the same Medieval Latin source), the sense of which was "clergyman who conducts private religious services," originally in great households; this sense continued in chaplain and later was extended to clergymen in military regiments, prisons, etc.
-cy
abstract noun suffix of quality or rank, from Latin -cia, -tia, from Greek -kia, -tia, from abstract ending -ia (see -ia) + stem ending -c- or -t-. The native correspondents are -ship, -hood.