baptize

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English baptizen, also baptisen,^[2][3][4][5] borrowed from Old French baptiser,^[2][3][6][7] also batisier and baptizier,^[5][8] from the 11th century,^[6][8] from Late Latin baptīzō,^[3][2][9] from Ancient Greek βαπτίζω (baptízō, “to immerse, dip, bathe”),^[6][3][8] a derivative of βάπτω (báptō, “to dip, plunge, dye”).^{[6][8][10][11]} Etymonline says the Greek verb is perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *gwabh- (“to dip, sink”),^[8] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged, Barnhart and Ayto compare Old Norse kafa (“to dive”) and kvefja (“to press under, quench”).^[2][5][10] The suffix is the one in -ize.^[5][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

To immerse in water, or to sprinkle water on, as a rite of purification or initiation: 1297, in Robert of Gloucester's Chronicle.^[6][12] Barnhart has the spelling baptyzen from about 1280,^[5] and Etymonline dates the verb to about 1300.^[8] Anglo-Norman already used baptiser by 1120–40, both for baptizing and for naming.^[13]

Semantic evolution

In Greek the verb was everyday, used for dipping and also figuratively for being over one's head in debt or soaked in wine, before Christians took it over for the rite.^[8][6] The underlying notion of dipping reflects the fact that Christian baptism was originally a full immersion.^[8][10] In English the religious use came first, with the figurative use for spiritual initiation or cleansing following about 1384 in the Wycliffite Bible.^[6] From about 1550 the word, with allusion to the naming at the ceremony, could mean simply "to give a name to", though the 1989 edition of the OED dated this to about 1450.^[6][14] Weekley notes that christen is much older,^[11] and Johnson (1755) defines it as "to christen; to administer the sacrament of baptism".^[15] In slang, from 1636, baptized wine or spirits had been watered down, an entry that Grose repeats in 1785,^[16] and in Australian slang baptized could mean drowned.^[16]

Timeline

• 1297 – to immerse in or sprinkle with water as a rite.^[6]
• c. 1384 – figurative, of spiritual initiation or cleansing.^[6]
• c. 1400 – intransitive, to administer the rite, in Pearl.^[6]
• c. 1550 – to give a name to.^[6]
• 1636 – baptized, of wine or spirits, watered down.^[16]

Meanings

Verb

1. To admit a person to Christianity or a church by the rite of immersion in water or sprinkling with it: The priest baptized three infants on Sunday.^[9][2][3][6]
2. To make someone a member of a particular church by that rite: She was baptized a Methodist.^[2]
3. To purify or cleanse spiritually, especially through an ordeal.^[2][3][9]
4. To introduce or initiate someone or something.^[2][3]
5. To give a name to, as at the ceremony; to christen: He was baptized Thomas.^[2][9][3][6]
6. To administer the rite, without an object.^[2][3][6]
7. (slang) To dilute wine or spirits with water.^[16]

Word family

• baptizer
• baptizable
• baptizement
• rebaptize

Related words

• baptism
• baptist
• baptistry
• anabaptist

Usage notes

The usual British variant is baptise,^[2][9] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged records a pronunciation with bab-, especially in the American South.^[2]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
11. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
14. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ a b c d Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com