Etymologically
Log in

catholic

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 15 October 2026 at 23:54. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

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
  • 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