chrism

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English crisme,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English crisma,^[5][6][7][8] borrowed from Ecclesiastical Latin chrisma,^{[5][9][10][11][12]} from Ancient Greek χρῖσμα (khrîsma, “anointing, unction, unguent”),^[5][9][6][4] from χρίω (khríō, “to anoint”).^[6][5][9][4] In the Romance languages the Latin word regularly became Old French cresme.^[5] Middle English took that word too, from about 1300, as creme.^[5] In the 16th century both the French word and the English one were refashioned after the Latin spelling, giving French chrême and chrism, and the English form creme, later cream, then went out of use in this sense.^[5][10][4] The verb is borrowed from Old French cresmer and Medieval Latin chrismāre.^[5][3] Etymonline, Barnhart and the American Heritage Dictionary trace the Greek verb to Proto-Indo-European *ghrēi- (“to rub”),^[9][10][8] and Barnhart connects grime and Merriam-Webster Unabridged grit;^[10][11] Klein calls the Greek verb of uncertain origin and offers the root only as a possibility.^[3] The same Greek verb gave Christ.^[13][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Consecrated oil, in Old English: Dictionary.com dates it to before 900 and Barnhart to before 1000,^[14][10] and Etymonline calls it late Old English.^[9] The OED's first quotation for the oil is from the Confession of Ecgbert.^[5] Bosworth–Toller glosses it as the holy oil used for anointing after baptism and at other times.^[6]

Semantic evolution

In Old English crisma could mean the white robe put on a child at baptism, a use recorded in the translation of Bede,^[5][6] and the variant chrisom kept that sense from about 1200.^[9] In Middle English it extended to the act of anointing, especially at baptism and confirmation,^[2] a sense recorded before 1300 in the Cursor Mundi.^[5][2] Later uses narrowed it to particular rites: the ceremony of confirmation, especially in the Orthodox Churches, from 1597, in Hooker, and extreme unction from 1635.^[5] Figurative use is recorded from 1649, in Jeremy Taylor, and E. B. Browning used it for any unguent in 1850, in her translation of Aeschylus.^[5] Johnson (1755) noted that it applied only to sacred ceremonies.^[15]

Timeline

• Old English – consecrated oil; also the baptismal robe.^[5]
• before 1300 – a sacramental anointing.^[5][2]
• c. 1300 – the form creme, from Old French.^[5]
• 16th century – the modern spelling, after the Latin.^[5][10]
• 1537 – verb, to anoint with chrism.^[5] The Shorter Oxford dates it from late Middle English.^[12]
• 1597 – the ceremony of confirmation.^[5]
• 1635 – extreme unction.^[5]
• 1649 – a figurative anointing.^[5]
• 1850 – an unguent in general.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Consecrated oil, usually mixed with balm or balsam, used in sacraments such as baptism and confirmation.^{[11][16][12][5]}
2. A sacramental anointing; unction.^[11][12][5]
3. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, the sacrament that corresponds to confirmation in the Western Church; usually capitalised in this sense.^[11][5]
4. An ointment or unguent.^[11][12][5]
5. The white baptismal robe; a chrisom.^[5][12]

Verb

1. To anoint with chrism (obsolete).^[11][5][12]

Word family

• chrismal
• chrismation

Related words

• chrisom
• cream
• Christ
• christen
• Christian
• chrismatory

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ a b c d e 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 n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
7. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
8. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
11. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
14. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
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. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins