pilgrimage

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English pilgrimage, earlier pelrimage,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Anglo-Norman pilgrimage, also pilrimage and pelrimage, variants of Old French pelerinage,^[5][2] formed from pelerin (“pilgrim”) and the suffix -age.^[5][4][6] Most of the English forms were altered after pilgrim, and the OED notes that it is uncertain whether the Anglo-Norman form pilgrimage reflects the English one rather than the reverse;^[5][2] Etymonline takes the word as partly formed in English from pilgrim and -age.^[3] Etymonline and Klein derive the French noun from the verb peleriner (“to go on a pilgrimage”).^[3][6] The Shorter Oxford derives it instead from Old Occitan pelegrinatge,^[7] and the Oxford Dictionary of English also gives a Provençal source.^[8] In Anglo-Norman and Old French the noun meant a pilgrimage from about 1135, a journey from about 1170, a crusade from about 1210, the course of a person's life from the early 13th century, and exile;^[5][9] the Anglo-Norman Dictionary records it from about 1150.^[9] Pelerin is from Late Latin pelegrīnus, a form of Latin peregrīnus (“foreigner, stranger”) with the first r changed to l,^[5][3][10] from peregre (“from abroad”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A journey to a holy place made as an act of religious devotion: about 1275, in the Kentish Sermons.^[5] Etymonline dates the form pelrimage to the late 13th century, for journeying through a strange country to a holy place.^[3]

Semantic evolution

By about 1300 the word was also used of any journey or period of wandering, and in early use of a stay abroad or exile, a sense now literary.^[5] In religious writing it soon stood for the course of mortal life seen as a journey towards heaven, from the early Wycliffite Bible (about 1384);^[5] Etymonline dates this figurative sense to the mid-14th century.^[3] From about 1400, in Mandeville's Travels, it could also mean the shrine or holy city that pilgrims visited.^[5] The extended sense of a journey to a place of special interest, made as a mark of respect, appears about 1515.^[5] The Pilgrimage of Grace was the name given to the risings in northern England in 1536 and 1537 against the dissolution of the monasteries.^[5] Chaucer used the noun seventeen times.^[11] Johnson (1755) defined it as "a long journey; travel; more usually a journey on account of devotion".^[12] The verb pilgrimage, at first meaning to travel or to live abroad (before 1382), took the sense "to go on a pilgrimage" in 1621.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1275 – a journey to a sacred place as an act of devotion.^[5]
• c. 1300 – a journey in general; a stay abroad, exile.^[5]
• before 1382 – verb, to travel or sojourn abroad.^[5]
• c. 1384 – the course of life as a spiritual journey.^[5]
• c. 1400 – a shrine or holy place visited by pilgrims.^[5]
• c. 1515 – a journey to a place of special significance.^[5]
• 1536 – the Pilgrimage of Grace, risings in northern England.^[5]
• 1621 – verb, to go on a pilgrimage.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A journey to a shrine or other sacred place, made as an act of religious devotion; also, the practice of making such journeys: Every spring she made a pilgrimage to the saint's tomb.^[13][4][5]
2. A journey to a place of special significance, made out of respect or affection: a pilgrimage to the poet's birthplace.^[13][5]
3. (literary) A long journey or a period of wandering.^[5][12]
4. Life regarded as a journey, especially towards a future state such as heaven.^[5][7]

Verb

1. To go on a pilgrimage, or as if on one.^[13][4][5]

Related words

• pilgrim
• peregrinate
• peregrine
• peregrination

References

1. ^ 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 g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
12. ^ 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.
13. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins