agnosticism

Etymology

It is formed from English agnostic + -ism.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} The base was coined by T. H. Huxley, supposedly in September 1869,^[3][4] apparently as an opposite of gnostic;^[2] the OED analyses it as the prefix a- and gnostic, and compares Ancient Greek ἄγνωστος (ágnōstos, “unknown, unknowable”),^[2] while Etymonline and Barnhart derive it from the Greek word.^[3][4] Huxley himself wrote in 1889 that he had meant it as "antithetic to the 'Gnostic' of Church history", and not, as is sometimes said, as a reference to the altar to the Unknown God in Acts.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The doctrine of agnostics about whether anything exists beyond material phenomena, or whether a First Cause or God can be known: 1870, in the Spectator of 29 January.^[2][3][4]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline glosses the word as the doctrine that ultimate causes and the essential nature of things are unknown or cannot be known.^[3] Dictionaries distinguish a wider philosophical sense, that certainty about first principles cannot be reached and only what is perceived can be known exactly, from the narrower religious one, that there is no proof either for or against the existence of God.^[8][6] Merriam-Webster Unabridged gives 1848 as its first known use, earlier than the other sources and than Huxley's coinage of the base.^[6][3]

Timeline

• 1870 – the doctrine of agnostics, about what lies beyond material phenomena or about knowledge of God.^[2][3][4] Merriam-Webster Unabridged gives 1848.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. The view that the existence or nature of any ultimate reality, such as God or a first cause, is unknown and probably cannot be known.^[6][2]
2. The view that there is no proof either that God exists or that God does not exist.^[8][6]
3. (philosophy) The view that certainty about first principles or absolute truth cannot be reached, and that only what is perceived can be known exactly.^[8]

Word family

• agnostic

Related words

• agnosia
• Gnostic
• Gnosticism

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin