disciple

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English disciple, earlier deciple,^[2][3] inherited from Old English discipul,^{[4][5][6][7][8]} borrowed from Latin discipulus (“pupil, learner; follower”),^[4][5][9][6] a word borrowed in Old English for the Bible.^[5] In Middle English it was reinforced by Anglo-Norman and Old French deciple, desciple and disciple, which had meant a follower of Jesus since before 1140,^{[4][10][6][11]} and the spelling was later brought back into line with the Latin.^[6][4] The Latin noun is of uncertain origin.^[4][5] Ancient authors such as Varro derived it from discō (“to learn”), as the OED of 1989 and Watkins did, through a reduplicated form of Proto-Indo-European *dek- (“to take, accept”);^[4][5][9] but this leaves the ending unexplained.^[4] Barnhart and Klein derive it instead from an unrecorded compound *discipiō (“to grasp intellectually”), from dis- (“apart”) and capiō (“to take”), formed like capulus (“handle”) from capiō;^[2][12][10] the OED notes that some modern scholars favour this view, and Klein takes the link with discō for a folk etymology.^[4][12] De Vaan, cited by Etymonline, finds the ending hard to explain in the first theory and the second semantically unconvincing.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

One of the personal followers of Jesus during his lifetime, and a pupil or follower of another teacher: both in Old English, in the Lindisfarne Gospels and the Old English translation of Bede.^[4] Barnhart dates the word to about 900, in the Old English Bede.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word was not common in Old English, where the usual word for a disciple was leorningcniht, and sometimes þegn.^[5][13] It was used mainly in translations of the New Testament, of the twelve apostles, of the followers of John the Baptist and of members of the early Church, so the Latin sense "pupil, student" has always been rare in English.^[4][5] Weekley notes that the English sense was set by biblical use.^[13] The wider sense, a person who follows the teaching or example of another, appears about 1300 according to Etymonline and before 1400 in the OED,^[5][4] and later of an adherent of a school of thought, as in a disciple of Kant.^[4][10] From 1832 the Disciples of Christ has been the name of a Protestant denomination, chiefly North American.^[4][10] Spenser used the verb disciple for "to teach, train" in 1596, while from 1645 it meant to make someone a disciple, especially to convert to Christianity.^[4][14] In southern Irish speech disciple could simply mean a fellow or chap.^[15]

Timeline

• c. 900 – Old English discipul, in the translation of Bede.^[2][4]
• before 1200 – Middle English deciple, in the Ancrene Riwle;^[2] disciple before 1225.^[2]
• c. 1300 – a follower of another's teaching or example.^[5]
• c. 1325 – a professed follower of Christ, a practising Christian.^[4]
• 1596 – verb, to teach or train (obsolete).^[4]
• 1645 – verb, to make a disciple of, to convert.^[4]
• 1832 – the Disciples of Christ.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person who follows and helps to spread the teachings of a master or a school of thought: a disciple of Freud.^[10][16][4]
2. One of the personal followers of Jesus during his life, especially one of the twelve apostles.^[10][16][4]
3. A committed and practising Christian.^[4]
4. A member of the Disciples of Christ, a Protestant denomination.^[10][4]
5. (rare) A pupil or student.^[4][17]

Verb

1. (archaic) To make a disciple of; to convert.^[10][14][4]
2. (obsolete, 1596) To teach or train.^[10][4][14]

Word family

• discipleship
• disciplelike
• condisciple

Related words

• discipline
• disciplinarian

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
4. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
8. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
9. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
13. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
16. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
17. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.