ecumenical

Etymology

It was formed in English, as a church word, from Late Latin oecumenicus (“general, universal”),^[2][3][4][5] with the suffix -al.^[4][6][5] Barnhart treats it as if from an unattested Latin *oecūmenicālis.^[6] The Late Latin adjective is from Ancient Greek οἰκουμενικός (oikoumenikós, “of the whole world”),^[7][2][8] from οἰκουμένη (oikouménē, “the inhabited world”), with γῆ (gê, “earth”) understood,^[2][9][7][8] the feminine present passive participle of οἰκέω (oikéō, “to inhabit”),^[7][10] from οἶκος (oîkos, “house, dwelling”),^[7][2][8] from Proto-Indo-European *weik- (“clan”).^[2][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Belonging to or representing the whole Christian world or the universal church: the OED and Barnhart date it 1563–87,^[11][6] the Historical Thesaurus 1570,^[12] and Merriam-Webster about 1587.^[4][10] Etymonline and the Shorter Oxford say the late 16th century.^[2][5] Dictionary.com dates the word only to 1835–45.^[13]

Semantic evolution

The Greek noun first meant the world as the Greeks knew it, themselves and their neighbours as opposed to barbarian lands; later it meant the Roman world, and in church Greek it took on the Christian sense.^[2] English began with that church sense, above all of councils,^[11][5] and widened it in 1607 to "belonging to the whole world".^[11][12] Johnson (1755), under the spelling oecumenical, defined it as general, respecting the whole habitable world, and quoted Stillingfleet on the Nicene council.^[14] The older spelling with oe- was the rule at first: the Shorter Oxford finds none with e- before the mid 19th century.^[5] In recent use the word has come to mean seeking Christian unity across denominations.^[5] Collins ties this to the international movement begun among non-Catholic churches in 1910 and embodied since 1937 in the World Council of Churches,^[15] and Dictionary.com places the movement, especially among Protestant groups, since the 1800s.^[13]

Timeline

• 1563–87 – of the whole Christian world or the universal church, as œcumenical.^[11][6]
• 1607 – belonging to the whole world; universal, general.^[11][12]
• mid 18th century – the adverb ecumenically.^[5]
• mid 19th century – the spelling with e-.^[5]
• 1888 – ecumenicalism, the doctrine of the ecumenical councils.^[11]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or relating to the worldwide Christian church.^[7][15][5]
2. Promoting unity among churches or religions; of Christians of several denominations: an ecumenical service for the whole town.^[7][15][5]
3. Of the international movement for Christian unity.^[15][13]
4. Worldwide or universal in extent or application.^{[7][4][5][15]}

Word family

• ecumenicalism
• ecumenically
• nonecumenical
• ecumenicism
• ecumenicist
• ecumenicity
• ecumenism
• ecumenical council

Related words

• ecumene
• economy
• ecology
• vicinity

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
7. ^ a b c d e f g h The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ a b c Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
13. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins