oblation

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English oblacioun, also oblation,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Anglo-Norman oblacion and Old French oblacion,^[5][3][6] and directly borrowed from Latin oblātiō (“an offering, presentation, gift”),^[5][3][6] formed from oblātus, used as the past participle of offerō (“to offer”),^[5][7][8] with -iō.^[5][8] The participle combines ob- and lātus (“carried, borne”), a suppletive form;^[8][3] Etymonline reports Watkins's derivation of lātus from Proto-Indo-European *tele- (“to bear, carry”).^[3][7] The Anglo-Norman word, recorded from the first half of the 12th century, already meant an offering to God, money or goods given to the Church, and the offering of bread and wine in the Eucharist.^[9] The Latin noun meant a payment or presentation from the 2nd century, and took on its Christian senses in post-classical use.^[5] The OED compares Spanish oblación and Italian oblazione.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

An offering of money or goods to the Church: 1413, in a London will,^[5] though Barnhart dates the form oblacyoun to before 1400 and Etymonline the word to about 1400, for an offering to a deity.^[6][3]

Semantic evolution

The word stayed mostly in church use, for what is given to God and for the act of giving it, including the offering of bread and wine in the Eucharist.^[5][2] Lydgate used it around 1425 for a solemn offering to a god.^[5] Secular uses did not last: a gift given as a token of respect (1433–1838) and a subsidy or gift to the monarch (1613–1891) are both obsolete.^[5] Johnson (1755) defined it as an offering or sacrifice, anything offered in worship or reverence.^[10] Merriam-Webster Unabridged notes that an oblation is usually something without life, as against a sacrifice of living things.^[8] According to the Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, the word had become rather obscure until Philip Pullman's Dark Materials books brought it back to public notice.^[11]

Timeline

• before 1400 – an offering to God or a god, as oblacyoun.^[6] The OED's first record is from before 1425, in the Northern Pauline Epistles.^[5]
• 1413 – money or goods presented to the Church.^[5]
• before 1425 – the offering of the bread and wine in the Eucharist, in a translation of Catherine of Siena.^[5]
• c. 1425 – the solemn offering of something to a god, in Lydgate's Troy Book.^[5]
• 1433 – a gift offered as a token of respect (obsolete by 1838).^[5]
• 1613 – a subsidy or tax, a gift to the monarch (obsolete by 1891).^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A religious offering, usually of something without life, as distinct from a sacrifice of living things.^[8][5]
2. The act of offering the bread and wine to God in the Eucharist.^[8][5]
3. Money or goods given to the Church for its use.^[5][2]
4. More generally, something offered.^[8]

Word family

• oblational

Related words

• oblate
• offer
• tolerate

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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)
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press