pantheon

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English panteon,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Medieval Latin panteon,^[5] and was borrowed again in the 16th century from Latin pantheon,^[5][6] which the OED records in post-classical Latin from the 6th century beside classical pantheum.^[6] The Latin word is from Ancient Greek Πάνθειον (Pántheion, “(shrine) of all the gods”),^[7][4][3][8] the neuter of πάνθειος (pántheios, “of or common to all the gods”),^[6][7][8] formed from παν- (pan-, “all”) and θεῖος (theîos, “of or for the gods”),^[7][4][8] from θεός (theós, “god”),^[7][6][8] from Proto-Indo-European *dhes- (“forming words for religious concepts”).^[7] The name was given especially to the temple of all the gods built in Rome by Agrippa about 25 BC, which became a Christian church in 609.^[7][9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Pantheon in Rome, a temple to all the gods: in Middle English from before 1425,^[4][7] or the 14th century in Merriam-Webster and Collins.^[11][9] The OED's earliest quotation for the word is in the Old English Martyrology.^[6]

Semantic evolution

In 1545 John Bale used it for all the gods of a people taken together, a sense rare before the 19th century.^[6] Nashe used it figuratively in 1596,^[4][6] and Etymonline dates the sense "any group of exalted persons" to the 1590s.^[7] From 1713 the name was given to buildings that resembled the Roman Pantheon,^[6] above all the church of Sainte-Geneviève in Paris, begun about 1757, which became the burial place of famous French people;^[6][10] French panthéon had this sense from 1792.^[6] In London, the Pantheon was a domed hall in Oxford Street, recorded from 1772.^[6] After François Pomey's Pantheum Mythicum, a pantheon was also a handbook of the pagan gods (1698–1819).^[6][11] The modern sense, the group of people or things most admired by a nation or a profession, is recorded from 1834.^[6]

Timeline

• 1300s – Middle English panteon, the Pantheon in Rome.^[11][9]
• 1545 – all the gods of a people or religion, collectively.^[6]
• 1596 – figurative use, now obsolete.^[6][4]
• 1698 – a treatise on the pagan gods (obsolete by 1819).^[6]
• 1713 – a building resembling the Pantheon in Rome, later one for burying or commemorating a nation's famous dead.^[6]
• 1834 – a group of people most revered by a nation, profession or person.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. All the gods of a people or religion, taken together: the Norse pantheon.^[9][11][6]
2. A group of the most famous or respected people in a field: a place in the pantheon of jazz.^[6][7]
3. A temple dedicated to all the gods, especially the one built in ancient Rome.^[9][11][6]
4. A building where the famous dead of a nation are buried or commemorated.^[9][11][6]
5. (obsolete, 1698–1819) A treatise on the pagan gods.^[6][11]

Word family

• pantheonic
• pantheonize

Related words

• pantheism
• theology
• enthusiasm

Usage notes

The OED notes that the stress on the second syllable, /pænˈθiːən/, recurs in 18th-century verse, was given by Johnson (1755), and was the more common pronunciation in England at the beginning of the 20th century.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
3. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster