Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a parson, a preacher.

1858

A. Mayhew Paved with Gold 309: He was nicknamed the ‘Amen bawler’ (parson) and recommended to take to the ‘hum box’ (pulpit).

1. (US black) the front seats in a church, on either side of the pulpit.

1875		Ladies’ Repository (N.Y.) XXXV Jan. 47: The few gentlemen who had come to worship were seated in what one of our party irreverently styled the ‘amen corner’.
1886		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 22 May 7/3: ‘Take a seat in the amen corner, Parson’.
1891		Dly Tobacco Leaf (Clarkesville, TN) 10 June 4/3: Miss Annie Rutherford [recited] ‘Trouble in the Amen Corner’.
1901		Bulletin (Sydney) 26 Oct. 14/4: It’s always a dark day in ‘Amen Corner’ when a bachelor shepherd ‘throws the handkerchief.’ Last time it happened hereabouts, patriarchs prayerfully ‘disciplined’ the meenister, while ewe-lambs of the flock flooded him with tear-blotted anonymous letters.
1909		Blue-grass Blade (Lexington, KY) 6 June 1/1: The people them days went to church / An’ filled the Amen Corner.
1928		(con. 1915–16) N.I. White Amer. Negro Folk-Songs 367: [reported from Auburn, Ala., 1915–1916] De preacher in de pulpit / Drinking champagne and beer, / Women in de amen corner / Singing don’t you leave me here.
1948		D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam News 1 May 15: [It] looked like the Amen Corner at the One More Step Holy Footwarmer Church.
2002		‘Touré’ Portable Promised Land (ms.) 160: We Words (My Favorite Things) [...] Amen corner.

2. in fig. non-religious use.

1894		Kansas Agitator 26 Apr. 3/2: A.G. Stacey sits in the amen corner of the Republican synagogue [...] and sent out daily to the Republican press a tissue of lies.
1917		S. Lewis Job 242: He denounced the new poster, the new top for the talcum-powder container, the arrangement of the files, and the whispering in the amen corner of veteran stenographers.

3. (US black) attrib. use of sense 1, pertaining to people who occupy those seats, i.e. the most devout members of the congregation.

1926		Z.N. Hurston Sweat (1995) 956: You ain’t nothing but a hypocrite. One of them amen-corner Christians.
1933		(con. 1850s) R. Bradford Kingdom Coming 114: Dat’s a-men-cornder tawk, gal.
1986		L. Heinemann Paco’s Story (1987) 9: Booming out some gibberish mumbo jumbo in his best amen-corner baritone.

a parish clerk; thus queer amen-curler n., a drunken parish clerk.

1707		T. Brown Works 2 23: A Certificate of this miraculous Cure, I have under the hand of the Parson of the Parish, and his Amen-curler.
1710		Serious & Comical Essays 159: This Amen-Curler did not make Psalm-singing his only Business.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant n.p.: amen-curler [...] queer amen-curler, a drunken parish clerk.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 3: Amen curler — a parish-clerk, or assistant at any chapel or conventicle.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
1846		Swell’s Night Guide 129/1: Queer amen curler, a drunken parish clerk.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
1899		R. Whiteing No. 5 John Street 221: ‘We represent the Musselbry branch o’ the Slav’ry Sersiety,’ says a sort of Amen-curler, as was at the ’ead on ’em.
1903		(ref. to 1870s) Dundee Eve. Post 26 Nov. 6/3: When the sweet Sabbath bells ring out softly o’er Bow / An’ the old amen curler to pulpit he go.

a church clerk.

1799

Sporting Mag. Sept. XIV 325/2: Being no novice beckons to his clerk: / The Amen-man did instantly obey.

(W.I.) the carrion crow.

1827, 1940

cited in Cassidy & LePage Dict. Jam. Eng. (1980).

(mainly Aus.) a parson.

1888		Bulletin 24 Nov. n.p.: In Maori-land it is impossible to swing [a] cat without smiting some variety of amen-snorter. Still the saints are not happy [F&H].
1951		D. Stivens Jimmy Brockett 230: Jerry said that Dubois’ old man had been an amen snorter, but that the kid had gone all atheist.
1957		J. Greenway ‘Australian Cattle Lingo’ in AS XXXIII:3 164: amen-snorter [...] n. A preacher.
1972		A. Chipper Aussie Swearers Guide 61: Amen Snorter (also Bible Basher). Someone with strong religous beliefs.
2002		A. Mariello ‘Dirty Dictionaries’ on Weekly Dig 🌐 He even tried Adam-and-Eveing it with the sizzlechested amen-snorter next door.

a church.

1909

J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.

the chaplain’s clerk; a clergyman.

1879		H. Hartigan Stray Leaves (2nd ser.) 37: [T]he newly appointed parson’s clerk [...] thought it was his duty to prevent bloodshed, as if he were the parson instead of the ‘amen wallah’.
1931		Qly Rev. 256 347: One occasionally heard the phrase an amen- wallah, a clergyman, especially a chaplain, but originally a chaplain's clerk.
1937–84		Partridge DSUE (1984) 17/2: C.19–20.
1954		G.S. Rao Indian Wds in Eng. 54: Thus we have [...] ‘Lewis gun wallah’, ‘amen wallah’, ‘base wallah’ [etc.].

to work as a parish clerk.

1701

T. Brown Letters from the Dead to the Living in Works (1760) II 16: Lower sells penny prayer-books all week, and curls an amen in a Meeting-house on Sundays.