Etymologically
Log in

secular

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 17 October 2026 at 15:35. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

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