catholic

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈkæθ.əl.ɪk/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English catholik,^[2][3] borrowed from Middle French catholique,^[2][3][4] and directly from Late Latin catholicus (“universal, general”),^[2][5][6] from Ancient Greek καθολικός (katholikós, “universal, general”),^[2][5][7] from the phrase kath' holou “on the whole, in general”,^[2][5][3] from kata “about, in respect of” and holos “whole”,^[2][7] from Proto-Indo-European *sol- (“whole”).^[2] It is related to holistic.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of the doctrines of the ancient undivided Church, universally accepted: about 1350 in Barnhart, in a Medieval Psalter,^[5] the mid-14th century in Etymonline.^[2] Old English rendered the Latin word as eallgeleaflic.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Medieval Latin catholicus was practically a synonym of Christianus, meaning conforming to the Church as opposed to local sects and heresies.^[2] After the Reformation began in England, Protestants applied it, with a capital C, to the Church of Rome by about 1554,^[2][5] and a member of the Roman Church is a Catholic by 1570.^[5][2] The general sense, universal, of interest to all, is from 1551,^[8][5] the 1550s in Etymonline,^[2] and “not narrow-minded, broad in sympathies and tastes” from the 1580s.^[2] Catholicism is from 1609.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1350 – of the universal Church.^[5]
• 1551 – universal.^[8][5]
• c. 1554 – of the Roman Church.^[5]
• 1570 – noun, a Roman Catholic.^[5]
• 1580s – broad-minded.^[2]
• 1609 – catholicism.^[5]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Broad or wide-ranging in scope; liberal: catholic tastes.
2. Universal; concerning all people.
3. Catholic: of the Roman Catholic Church, or of the whole Christian church.

Noun

1. Catholic: a member of a Catholic church, especially a Roman Catholic.

Word family

• catholically
• catholicize
• catholicalness
• catholicism
• catholicity
• uncatholic

Related words

• holistic
• holocaust

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press