secular

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˈsek.jə.lə/, US /ˈsek.jə.lɚ/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English seculer, borrowed from Old French seculer (modern French séculier), and directly Late Latin saeculāris (“worldly, secular, pagan”),^[2][3][4] in classical Latin “of an age, occurring once in an age”,^[2][4] from Latin saeculum (“age, generation, lifetime”), which Christian Latin used for “the world” as opposed to the Church.^[2][3][5][6] Watkins, cited by Etymonline, takes it from a root meaning to bind (see sinew), the generations seen as links in the chain of life; an older theory connected it with words for seed (see sow).^[2] The Latin word is also the source of French siècle (“century”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of clergy, living in the world rather than in a monastic order: about 1290 in the OED, about 1300 in Etymonline.^[7][2] Belonging to the world and its affairs as distinguished from the Church is also from about 1290.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Literature, art and especially music that is not sacred is called secular from about 1450,^[7] and education in non-religious subjects from 1526.^[7] The present, visible world as opposed to the eternal one is from 1597.^[7] The sense “occurring once in an age” came directly from Latin in the 16th century,^[3][2] and the uses in astronomy and economics, for slow long-term change (secular acceleration, secular trend), are from the early 19th century.^[5] As a noun, a secular cleric, it is from the 13th century.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1290 – of clergy; worldly.^[7]
• c. 1450 – not sacred (art, music).^[7]
• 1526 – of non-religious education.^[7]
• 1590s – once in an age or century.^[2]
• early 19th century – secular trend.^[5]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Concerned with worldly rather than spiritual or sacred things; temporal.
2. Not related to religion or to a religious body.
3. Of education, without religious teaching or services.
4. Of clergy, not bound by vows to a monastic order.
5. Occurring or appearing once in an age or century.

Noun

1. A member of the secular clergy.
2. A layperson.

Word family

• secularly
• secularity
• presecular
• supersecular
• unsecular
• secularism
• secularize

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press