secularism

Etymology

It is formed from English secular + -ism.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The adjective comes from Old French seculer and directly from Late Latin saeculāris (“worldly, secular”), from Latin saeculum (“age, generation; in Christian Latin, the world”).^[4][2] Etymonline, following Watkins, traces the Latin noun to Proto-Italic *sai-tlo-, from Proto-Indo-European *sai- (“to bind, tie”), the generations being seen as links in a chain.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The system of belief promoted by G. J. Holyoake, which based morality on human well-being in the present life without regard to God or a future state: 1851, in Holyoake's words in the Reasoner of 10 December.^[2] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster Unabridged give the same year,^[3][7] while Etymonline dates the word to 1843.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The word was coined for a movement: the same paper, the Reasoner, used secularist for an adherent on 3 December 1851, explaining that it marked the part of human duty that belongs to this life;^[2] secularist had earlier meant a member of the secular clergy (1716).^[2] By 1855, in F. P. Cobbe's Essay on Intuitive Morals, secularism was used more widely for a way of thinking held and acted on more or less unconsciously.^[2] From 1872 it also named the view that education, especially education paid for by the state, should be purely secular.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged now defines it broadly as a view that leaves out religion and religious considerations, and specifically as a system of social ethics based on the present life;^[7] Collins adds the state of being secular.^[8] Much older is secularity, from the late 14th century, for civil or temporal power and the condition of being secular.^[4]

Timeline

• 1851 – the system of belief promoted by G. J. Holyoake.^[2][3][7]
• 1855 – in a wider sense, a mode of thought that leaves out religion.^[2]
• 1872 – the view that state education should be purely secular.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The view that religion and religious considerations should be kept out of civil affairs, such as government and public education: The new constitution was built on strict secularism.^[7][8][2]
2. (philosophy) A doctrine or system of ethics that bases morality only on human well-being in the present life, without reference to religion.^[8][7][2]
3. The state of being secular.^[8]

Word family

• secularist
• secularistic

Related words

• secularity
• secularize
• secular

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins