Etymologically
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atheist

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈeɪ.θi.ɪst/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French athéiste,[2][3][4][5] or, as the OED allows, Italian atheista,[6][7] formed from athée and -iste,[2][4] from Ancient Greek ἄθεος (átheos, “godless, denying the gods”),[5][3][4] from ἀ- (a-, “without”) and θεός (theós, “a god”).[5][4] Etymonline traces the Greek noun to Proto-Indo-European *dhes-, a root forming words for religious concepts.[5] atheism followed in 1587, from athéisme.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Merriam-Webster dates the noun to 1551.[2] The OED's and Barnhart's first record is from 1571, in Arthur Golding's translation of Calvin on the Psalms, meaning a person who denies or disbelieves the existence of God.[6][3]

Semantic evolution

From 1577 the word was also used of a person who denies God in practice by ignoring moral duty, a godless person,[6][7] and Etymonline gives this as its sense in the 1570s.[5] Johnson (1755) quoted South's contrast between the speculative and the practical atheist.[8] The adjective is first recorded in Milton's Paradise Lost (1667), "the atheist crew";[6][8] Merriam-Webster dates it to 1645.[2] The Shorter Oxford notes that the opposite was once deist and is now theist.[7]

Timeline

  • 1551 – noun.[2]
  • 1571 – one who denies or disbelieves the existence of God, in Golding's translation of Calvin.[6][3]
  • 1577 – a godless person.[6]
  • 1587 – atheism.[3]
  • 1634 – atheistic.[3]
  • 1645 – adjective, according to Merriam-Webster.[2]
  • 1667 – adjective, in Milton's Paradise Lost.[6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A person who does not believe in God or in any gods.[9][2][6]
  2. (archaic) A godless person, who ignores moral duty to God.[6][7]

Adjective

  1. Of or relating to atheists or atheism; atheistic.[9][2][6]

Word family

  • atheistically
  • antiatheist

Usage notes

An atheist denies that God or gods exist; an agnostic holds that nothing can be known about God and makes no religious commitment; an infidel is an unbeliever, especially in Christianity or Islam; and a skeptic doubts accepted doctrines in general.[10]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  9. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House