evangel

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English evangile, also evangell and evaungel,^[2][3][4] later assimilated to the Latin form,^[3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman evangel and Old French evangile,^[5][6][3] from Ecclesiastical Latin ēvangelium (“gospel”),^[6][5][7] from Ancient Greek εὐαγγέλιον (euangélion, “reward for good news; good news”),^[7][3][6] from εὐάγγελος (euángelos, “bringing good news”), a compound of εὖ (eû, “well”) and ἄγγελος (ángelos, “messenger”), the source of angel.^[7][2][8] Beside it the Middle English Dictionary enters evangelie, directly from the Latin.^[9] The noun meaning an evangelist has a separate source, that Greek adjective itself,^[5][10] or through Late Latin evangelus.^[2][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

A copy of the Gospels, especially one to swear on: 1391, in a record printed in W. Fraser's Lennox.^[5] The record of Christ's life follows before 1393, in Gower.^[5] Etymonline dates the word to the mid 14th century, as "the gospel",^[6] and Dictionary.com to 1300–50.^[11]

Semantic evolution

In classical Greek εὐαγγέλιον (euangélion) was the reward given for bringing good news, and in Christian use the sense passed to the good news itself.^[6][3] In English the word named the Gospel book, the Gospel account and the Christian message within a few decades, and Chaucer has it three times.^[5][12] In Scotland it could also mean a passage of the Gospels read in church, from about 1485 to 1591.^[5] The later history is one of extension to other messages and creeds.^[5][10] Bacon used it in 1622 for a statement that could not be doubted, a use that ended by 1681.^[5] From 1637 it was any message of spiritual good news.^[5] Carlyle's Sartor Resartus (1834) has it for a doctrine that someone holds to be of great importance,^[5] and the Shorter Oxford links this sense with political and social creeds.^[10] Meanwhile the word has become archaic for the gospel itself,^[13][10] although Scots writers still used it in the 19th century.^[14] The sense "evangelist" has its first record before 1400, in the Cursor Mundi,^[5] but other dictionaries date it far later,^[10][11][2] and it has developed the sense of anyone with a message to spread.^[10]

Timeline

• 1391 – a copy of the Gospels, especially for swearing oaths on.^[5]
• before 1393 – the record of Christ's life and teaching in the Gospels.^[5]
• before 1400 – an evangelist.^[5] The Shorter Oxford dates this noun to the late 16th century, Dictionary.com to 1585–95 and Merriam-Webster Unabridged to 1614.^[10][11][2]
• c. 1400 – the teaching of Christ, the Christian gospel.^[5]
• before 1425 – each of the four Gospels.^[5]
• c. 1485 – in Scots, a Gospel passage read in church (obsolete by 1591).^[5]
• 1622 – a statement not to be doubted (obsolete by 1681).^[5]
• 1637 – any message of spiritual good news.^[5]
• 1834 – a doctrine held to be of great importance.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. (archaic) The Christian gospel.^[13][2][10]
2. One of the four Gospels of the New Testament, often capitalized.^[13][2][5]
3. Good news, or a message of good news.^[2][10][5]
4. A doctrine or body of teachings held to be of central importance: the evangel of free trade.^[2][13][5]
5. An evangelist, or anyone eager to spread a message: an evangel of clean energy.^{[2][4][10][5]}
6. A copy of the Gospels, especially as used in taking an oath.^[5][10]
7. (obsolete, 1622–1681) A statement confidently taken to be true.^[5][10]

Related words

• angel
• evangelism
• evangelist
• evangelize
• evangelical
• evangely
• vangel

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
9. ^ 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)
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c d Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
12. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
13. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ 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)