Christianity

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English cristianite, also cristiante and cristiente,^[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman christienté and Old French crestienté,^[4][5][6][7] and also borrowed from Late Latin chrīstiānitās,^[4][2] the French word's own source.^[4][5][8] The French word is recorded from about 1040, as cristientet,^[4] and the Anglo-Norman one from 1113–19.^[9] The SOED and the Oxford Dictionary of English take it as a French word formed on Old French crestien and assimilated to the Latin,^[6][10] and Dictionary.com sees a borrowing from Latin replacing an earlier one from French.^[11] Forms with “ch-”, from late Middle English on, were respelled after the Latin.^[4][5] The Latin noun was formed from chrīstiānus (“Christian”) with -tās,^[4][5] and the adjective is from Ancient Greek Χριστιανός (Khristianós), from Χριστός (Khristós, “Christ, anointed one”).^[1][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The whole body of Christians, or the Christian world: before 1300, in Floris and Blauncheflur, a poem the OED dates to about 1250.^[4] Dictionary.com dates the word to 1250–1300,^[11] Merriam-Webster Unabridged to the 13th century,^[7] and Etymonline to about 1300.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Old English had cristennes,^[5] and the new word replaced Christenhead and Christenhood.^[4] It began as a synonym of Christendom, the older word,^[5][4] from which it later came apart in meaning: the SOED treats the sense "Christendom" as obsolete after the mid-17th century,^[6] though the OED and Merriam-Webster Unabridged still list it.^[4][7] In Latin and French the sense "Christian religion" is recorded first and "Christendom" only afterwards.^[4] The sense "the Christian religion" and the sense "the state or quality of being Christian" are both first recorded in Mannyng's Handlyng Synne (about 1303, in a manuscript from before 1400),^[4] and the OED notes that the second has no parallel in French until the 16th century.^[4] Chaucer has the word once.^[12] People swore by my Christianity or upon my Christianity from before 1500 to 1790,^[4][2] and a countable plural for a Christian system or sect appears in 1653.^[4] A church-law use, for a court or an area of jurisdiction, is recorded from the later 16th century: it continues a Latin use for spiritual jurisdiction from the 11th century.^[4][6] Johnson (1755) gave only "the religion of Christians".^[13]

Timeline

• before 1300 – cristente, the whole body of Christians.^[4][5]
• c. 1303 – the Christian religion; the state of being Christian.^[4]
• before 1500 – upon one's Christianity, on one's faith (obsolete by 1790).^[4]
• 1573 – an ecclesiastical court.^[4]
• 1587 – an ecclesiastical jurisdiction, a rural deanery.^[4][6]
• 1653 – plural, a Christian system, sect or denomination.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as recorded in the New Testament, and on the belief that he was the son of God: Her book traces the spread of Christianity across northern Europe.^[7][4][6]
2. The whole body of Christian believers or the countries where the religion is dominant; Christendom.^[7][4]
3. The state, fact or quality of being Christian, or Christian character and behaviour.^[4][6]
4. A particular Christian system, sect or denomination.^[4]
5. (historical) An ecclesiastical jurisdiction; in particular, a rural deanery.^[4][6]

Related words

• Christian
• Christ
• Christendom
• christen

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ Mayhew, A. L.; Skeat, Walter W. (1888), A Concise Dictionary of Middle English from A.D. 1150 to 1580, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
12. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.