preach

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English prechen,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French preechier,^[3][2][4] also prechier, with the Anglo-Norman forms preecher and precher,^[5][6] from Latin praedicō (“to proclaim publicly, announce”), which in Church Latin meant "to preach".^[5][3][7][8] The Latin verb is formed from prae- (“before, forth”) and dicō (“to proclaim, dedicate”),^[3][4][9] from Proto-Indo-European *deik- (“to show, pronounce solemnly”).^[3][9] The French verb is recorded from the late 10th century,^[5] and in Anglo-Norman from the first half of the 12th, in the senses to exhort and to preach.^[10][5] The Church Latin verb was borrowed early into nearly all the Romance and Germanic languages:^[11][5] compare Spanish predicar, Italian predicare, Dutch preken, German predigen and Old Norse prédika.^{[5][12][13][1]} Old English had already taken it directly from Latin as predician, but that word did not survive into Middle English, and the verb was borrowed again from French in the 12th century.^{[11][3][14][13]} It is a doublet of predicate.^[11][14]

Earliest recorded meaning

To deliver a sermon: the first record is in the Ancrene Riwle, about 1225 (the text perhaps before 1200).^[5][11] The Middle English Dictionary records the forms prechen, preche, preken and, in early South-West Midland texts, preachen.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In the 13th and 14th centuries the verb was used of proclaiming the Gospel or a religious doctrine (before 1300) and, transitively, of addressing or exhorting a person, a sense obsolete after 1707.^[5] From about 1395, in Chaucer, it also meant to give earnest moral advice, and the OED notes that this is now usually derogatory: to lecture someone in a self-righteous or tiresome way.^[5][4] Etymonline dates the sense "give earnest advice, especially on moral subjects" to the 1520s.^[3] In Yorkshire and Devon dialect preach could simply mean to talk at length or chatter,^[15] and in Scotland to preach up the times was to discuss politics from the pulpit.^[15] The idiom to preach to the converted is recorded from 1857 in the OED, and Etymonline dates it to 1867;^[5][3] preach to the choir appears in 1979.^[3] The noun preach, a sermon or lecture, followed in the 16th century,^[5][7] and in mid-20th-century American English preach was also a shortening of preacher.^[5][7]

Timeline

• c. 1225 – to deliver a sermon, in the Ancrene Riwle.^[5]
• before 1300 – to proclaim a religious message.^[5]
• c. 1300 – to exhort a person (obsolete by 1707).^[5]
• before 1382 – to deliver a sermon or discourse (transitive).^[5]
• c. 1395 – to give earnest moral advice, in Chaucer.^[5]
• before 1550 – noun, a sermon or lecture.^[5]
• 1641 – preach up and preach down.^[5]
• 1857 – to preach to the converted.^[5]
• 1955 – noun, a preacher (US).^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To deliver a sermon or religious address: The vicar preached on forgiveness.^[16][4][5]
2. To proclaim or teach a religious message, such as the gospel.^[16][4][5]
3. To urge people to accept an idea or course of action; to advocate: She preached the value of saving.^[16][4][5]
4. To give moral advice in a tiresome or self-righteous way: Stop preaching at me.^[4][5]

Noun

1. (informal) A sermon or lecture.^[4][7][5]

Word family

• preachingly
• preacher
• outpreach
• preachify
• preachment
• unpreached
• preachy
• nonpreaching

Related words

• predicate
• predicament
• diction

References

1. ^ a b c 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 h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 z Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d 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 The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
14. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
15. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
16. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins