Protestant

Etymology

It is apparently borrowed from Latin prōtestāns (“protesting”), the present participle of prōtestor (“to declare publicly, testify, protest”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} after German, the wording of the protest at Speyer being “so protestieren und bezeugen wir hiermit öffentlich vor Gott”, “thus we protest and testify publicly before God”.^[2] The word in English was probably reinforced by Middle French protestant (as an adjective in 1541, as a noun in 1542) and by the same form in post-classical Latin.^[2] The dictionaries differ over the immediate source: Barnhart thinks it perhaps German but more likely French,^[4] Etymonline and the Oxford Dictionary of English say German or French,^[3][6] Merriam-Webster says Middle French,^[7] the Shorter Oxford modern Latin,^[8] and the American Heritage Dictionary French from German.^[9] The OED notes that the usual German term was the adjective German protestierend, and that Protestant, recorded by 1606, probably comes from French.^[2] The Latin verb is formed from prō- (“forth”) and testor (“to testify”), from testis (“witness”),^[9][3] and is the source of protest.^[3][5] Related nouns appear in Italian protestante in 1574 and in Dutch protestant by 1581.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the plural, the German princes and free cities who dissented from the second Diet of Speyer (1529): 1539, in a letter of Thomas Wyatt.^[2][4][3] The adjective is recorded in the same year, in a state paper of Thomas Cromwell.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

The name comes from a formal act: the Diet of Speyer of 1529 reversed the liberal terms granted to the Lutherans in 1526, and the dissenting princes and cities made a public declaration against it.^[3][2][5] It then became a general name for followers of the Reformation in Germany,^[4][3] taken up by Lutherans there and in Poland, while the Swiss and French preferred Reformed.^[4][3] The wider sense, a member of any Western church outside the Roman communion, appears in English about 1551 in the OED and 1553 in Barnhart and Etymonline.^[2][4][3] In the 17th century the word was opposed chiefly to papist and so accepted by Anglicans generally; once it was opposed to Roman Catholic or simply Catholic, those who stress the Anglican claim to be equally Catholic came to dislike it, according to the OED as quoted by Etymonline.^[3] From the 17th century the sense "one who makes a declaration or protest" also returned in secular use, usually with a small initial and often with a play on the religious name.^[2][8]

Timeline

• 1539 – noun, the German princes and cities dissenting from the Diet of Speyer.^[2][4][3]
• 1539 – adjective, of or relating to Protestants.^[2][4]
• c. 1551 – a member of any of the churches that broke with Rome at the Reformation.^[2] Barnhart and Etymonline date this to 1553.^[4][3]
• 1583 – a member of the Anglican Church as opposed to a Nonconformist.^[2]
• 1648 – a person who makes a declaration or avowal, in Herrick's Hesperides.^[2]
• 1725 – the shortened, often contemptuous Prot, in Irish English.^[3]
• 1844 – adjective, protesting, in non-religious contexts.^[2][3]
• 1853 – a person who protests or objects.^[2]
• 1862 – a member of a nonconformist or non-episcopal church.^[2]
• 1926 – Protestant ethic, from the work of Max Weber.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A member of any of the Western Christian churches that separated from the Roman Catholic Church at the Reformation, or of a church descended from them.^[10][2][8]
2. (historical) One of the German princes and free cities who protested at the Diet of Speyer in 1529; more widely, a follower of the Reformation in Germany, especially a Lutheran.^[7][2][8]
3. Usually protestant: a person who protests; an objector.^[2][8]
4. (archaic) A member of the Anglican Church, as opposed to a Nonconformist.^[7][2][8]

Adjective

1. Of or relating to Protestants, their churches or their religion: a Protestant chapel.^[7][2]
2. Usually protestant, now rare: making a protest.^[7][2][8]

Word family

• protestantize
• unprotestant
• anti-Protestant
• non-Protestant
• pro-Protestant
• Protestantism

Related words

• protest
• testify
• testament

Usage notes

The secular noun and adjective are usually written with a small initial and are often stressed on the second syllable, which sets them apart from the religious word: UK and US /prəˈtɛst(ə)nt/ in the OED's transcription.^[2][8][7][3]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ 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
9. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins