Etymologically
Log in

advent

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 26 October 2026 at 00:05. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • /ˈæd.vɛnt/, /ˈæd.vənt/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin adventus (“approach, arrival”),[2][3][4][5][6] which in Church Latin also meant the coming of Christ and, from the 7th or 8th century, the season before Christmas.[2][4] The English word was then reinforced by Anglo-Norman advent, also avent, the season before Christmas from 1119 and the coming of Christ from 1139;[2][5] the French spelling advent had been remodelled after Latin and gave way again to avent.[2][7][8] The Latin noun is formed from the past participle stem of adveniō (“to come to, arrive”),[2][4][6][9] from ad- (“to”) and veniō (“to come”),[4][6][3] from Proto-Indo-European *gʷā- (“to go, come”).[4][6] The Latin word also gave Italian avvento, Spanish adviento and Portuguese advento, and was borrowed into German Advent and Dutch advent.[2] It is related to adventure, advene and venture.[5][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The church season before Christmas: late Old English, in the Peterborough interpolation of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle,[2][4] under the annal for 963 in Barnhart.[3]

Semantic evolution

The word named the season after the "coming" of Christ.[4][11] By the 15th century it also meant that coming itself, the Incarnation, first recorded before 1425 in Wyclif,[2][8] and Christ's expected return, the second advent.[2][3] The general sense, the arrival of any important person or thing, is recorded from 1591 in the OED[2] but only from 1742 in Etymonline, as an extension of the church sense;[4] Barnhart dates it to the 1700s and thinks it was helped by the primary meaning of the Latin noun,[3] and the OED allows either a new borrowing from Latin or an extension of the theological sense.[2] Johnson (1755) knew it only as the name of the holy season, "signifying the coming; that is, the coming of our Saviour".[11]

Timeline

  • 12th century – Advent, the season before Christmas.[2][12]
  • before 1425 – the coming of Christ, the Incarnation; the Second Coming.[2]
  • 1591 – the arrival of any important person or thing.[2]
  • 1742 – "important arrival", in Etymonline's dating.[4]
  • 1755 – Johnson defines only the church season.[11]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The coming or arrival of an important person, thing or event: the advent of television.[12][5][2]
  2. Advent: the season of the four Sundays before Christmas, kept by many Christians as a time of preparation; in the Eastern Orthodox Church, the forty days before Christmas.[12][5][2]
  3. (Christianity) The coming of Christ, the Incarnation; also his Second Coming.[5][2]

Word family

  • Adventist
  • Advent Sunday

Usage notes

The church season is usually written with a capital, Advent.[2][12] Merriam-Webster notes a chiefly British pronunciation with a reduced second vowel, /ˈædvənt/.[5][12]

References

  1. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  7. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  10. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  11. ^ a b c Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  12. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins