laic

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin lāicus (“lay, of the laity”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from Ancient Greek λαϊκός (laïkós, “of or belonging to the people”),^[2][7][8][9] from λαός (laós, “the people”).^{[2][7][8][10]} The OED also takes the word partly from the Greek and compares Old French laic, laique,^[2] and Etymonline and Klein bring it through French laïque.^[8][7] It is related to the adjective lay.^[10][11][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of or belonging to a layman or the laity, not clerical, secular: 1562, on the title page of Winȝet's Last Blast of the Trompet.^[2] Dictionary.com dates the word to 1555–65,^[9] while Collins places it in the 15th century.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The adjective has kept the sense it had from the start.^[2][10] The noun, a layman or lay person, followed in 1596, in Dalrymple's translation of Leslie's Historie of Scotland;^[2][10] Etymonline dates it to the 1590s.^[8] Collins now calls the noun a rare word for layman.^[12] The longer adjective laical is also from the 16th century, and laicize from the 19th.^[4]

Timeline

• 1562 – adjective, of the laity, non-clerical, secular.^[2]
• 1596 – noun, a layman, one who is not a member of the clergy.^[2][8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or relating to the laity rather than the clergy; secular: the laic members of the synod.^[12][2][10]

Noun

1. A member of the laity; a layman.^[6][12][2]

Word family

• laically
• laicism
• laicize

Related words

• lay
• layman
• layperson
• laywoman
• laical
• laity

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins