spirituality

Etymology

It is borrowed from Anglo-Norman spiritualité, also Middle French spiritualité,^[2][3][4][5] and partly borrowed from Medieval Latin spirituālitās (“spiritual character or nature”),^[2][3][5][6] from spirituālis (“spiritual”) and the suffix -tās,^[2][5] from spīritus (“breath; spirit”).^[3] In medieval French the forms with a prefixed e- were more usual, as espiritualité.^[2][3] In Anglo-Norman the word is recorded from about 1300, for church authority and for matters under the jurisdiction of the church.^[7] The OED compares the slightly earlier spiritualty, which Klein calls a doublet, and notes that the later meanings were shaped by spiritual.^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The person or body exercising the jurisdiction of a bishopric while the see is vacant: 1417, in a letter printed in H. Ellis's Original Letters, a sense now chiefly historical.^[2] Etymonline dates the word to the late 14th century, in the senses "immateriality" (of angels), "the clergy" and "church property".^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word first belonged to church law: from about 1450, in Dives and Pauper, it meant the spiritual realm or the jurisdiction of the church,^[2] while from 1468 usually in the plural, the possessions and revenues of the church or a cleric.^[2][5] From 1525 it was the clergy as an estate of the realm,^[2] a sense now archaic or historical.^[8] The personal sense, the condition of being spiritual, attached to spiritual rather than worldly things, appears about 1485 in G. Hay's Buke of Knychthede,^[2] or about 1500 according to Etymonline.^[3] In the 17th century it could also mean an incorporeal substance or the quality of being incorporeal (1628, 1632),^[2] the sense Johnson (1755) gave first: "incorporeity; immateriality".^[9] The modern sense, a person's outlook, beliefs or practice in spiritual matters in any religious or philosophical tradition, is recorded from 1905.^[2] Etymonline notes that English never sorted the senses of spirituality and spiritualty between the two forms.^[3]

Timeline

• 1417 – the body exercising a vacant see's jurisdiction.^[2]
• c. 1450 – the spiritual realm; the jurisdiction of the church.^[2]
• 1468 – church possessions and revenues, usually plural.^[2]
• c. 1485 – the condition of being spiritual.^[2]
• 1525 – the clergy as an estate.^[2]
• 1632 – incorporeal character.^[2]
• 1755 – Johnson defines it as incorporeity, immateriality.^[9]
• 1905 – spiritual outlook or practice in any tradition.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The quality or state of being spiritual; concern with the spirit or soul rather than with material things.^[10][11][2]
2. A person's outlook, beliefs or practice in spiritual matters, in any religious or philosophical tradition: Her spirituality drew on both Buddhist and Christian teaching.^[2][11]
3. (archaic) The clergy.^{[10][11][8][2]}
4. (chiefly in the plural) Property or revenue belonging to the church or to a cleric as such.^{[10][11][5][2]}

Word family

• nonspirituality

Related words

• spiritual
• spirit
• spiritualty
• temporality

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 m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
8. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ 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.
10. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
11. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster