laity

Etymology

Most dictionaries take it as formed from English lay + -ity, from the adjective meaning not in holy orders.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][8]} Etymonline, the MED and Weekley instead take it from Anglo-Norman laité,^[9][10][11] which the Anglo-Norman Dictionary records from 1267 for the authority of the laity, civil jurisdiction and lay possession;^[12] the OED mentions the Anglo-Norman word only for the sense "lay property".^[2] The adjective comes from Old French lai,^[9][4][2] from Late Latin lāicus,^[9][2] from Ancient Greek λαϊκός (laïkós, “of the people”),^[9][2] from λαός (laós, “the people”), a word of unknown origin.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The common people as distinct from the clergy: before 1415, in The Lantern of Light, which speaks of "þe viciouse parte of þe laite".^[10][3] Etymonline dates the word to the early 15th century.^[9] The OED, whose entry has not been fully revised, starts this sense only in 1541,^[2] and Hoad and Collins date the word to the 16th century.^[4][13]

Semantic evolution

According to the OED, the older term for the laity as a body was lay-fee.^[2] From 1616, in Bullokar's English Expositor, the word also named the state of being a layman,^[2] and Johnson (1755) gives both meanings, quoting Ayliffe's "a mere laity, or want of holy orders".^[14] In the 19th century the contrast with the clergy was extended to any profession: the OED first finds people outside a learned profession or an art called the laity in J. Austin's Province of Jurisprudence (1832),^[2] and G. B. Shaw wrote that "all professions are conspiracies against the laity".^[5]

Timeline

• before 1415 – laite, lay people as distinct from the clergy.^[10][3] The OED's first record is from 1541.^[2]
• 1616 – the state of being a layman.^[2]
• 1832 – people outside a learned profession or an art.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The members of a religious faith who are not clergy; lay people as a group.^{[8][15][13][2]}
2. All those who do not belong to a given profession or specialized field.^{[8][15][13][2]}
3. The condition of being a layman, not in holy orders.^[2][5][14]

Related words

• lay
• layman
• laic

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b c 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 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)
11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
13. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ a b 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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster