Etymologically
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zeal

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Pronunciation

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English zele, also zeel,[2][3] borrowed from Old French zel[4][5][2][3] and directly borrowed from Late Latin zēlus (“jealousy, rivalry, emulation; zeal”),[4][5][2][6] a church word[5] from Ancient Greek ζῆλος (zêlos, “ardour, eager rivalry, emulation, jealousy”),[4][5][7][3] Doric ζᾶλος (zâlos).[7] The Latin and Greek words took the sense "fervour" in the Vulgate, the Septuagint and the New Testament.[4] The Greek noun is probably related to ζητέω (zētéō, “to seek, inquire”),[7][4] the source of zetetic, and perhaps to ζημία (zēmía, “damage, penalty”);[7][2] Etymonline gives Watkins's reconstruction Proto-Indo-European *ya- (“to seek, request, desire”).[5] Barnhart thinks the English word was influenced by the earlier zealot.[2] The Latin word also gave Italian zelo and Spanish celo.[5][7] The derived Medieval Latin zēlōsus is the source of zealous and, through French, of jealous.[8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

In biblical language, the passionate love of God that tolerates no unfaithfulness: before 1382, in the early version of the Wycliffite Bible.[4][2]

Semantic evolution

In the Bible the word often translates the Hebrew word for ardour or jealousy, and so in English zeal could mean jealousy, anger or indignation as well as love.[4][10][11] From the early 15th century it was used of intense feeling in people, often of a negative kind (until 1700), and of ardent love or devotion (until the 19th century).[4] The sense "eager enthusiasm for a cause or pursuit", now the main one, is recorded in Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde before 1413.[4] In the 16th century, Hoad notes, the word came to mean intense ardour in any pursuit.[9] Johnson (1755) defined it as "passionate ardour for any person or cause", quoting Wolsey's lament in Shakespeare's Henry VIII: "Had I but serv'd my God with half the zeal I serv'd my king".[12] Collins notes that the devotion is often extreme or fanatical.[6] A verb zeal, to pursue with zeal, was used from 1542 to 1687.[4]

Timeline

  • before 1382 – the passionate love or jealousy of God, in biblical language.[4]
  • before 1413 – eager enthusiasm for a cause or undertaking.[4]
  • before 1425 – strong feeling, often negative, such as envy or anger (obsolete by 1700).[4]
  • c. 1451 – eager desire for something (obsolete by 1697).[4]
  • 1542 – verb, to pursue with zeal (obsolete by 1687).[4]
  • 1631 – a zealous person, a zealot (obsolete by 1647).[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Eager, passionate enthusiasm for a cause, belief, person or aim, sometimes extreme or fanatical: He took up the campaign with great zeal.[6][11][4]
  2. (archaic) In biblical language, intense feeling showing itself as jealousy or righteous indignation.[11][10]
  3. (obsolete, 1451–1697) An eager desire to do or have something.[11][4]

Word family

  • zealless

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  7. ^ a b c d e Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  8. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  9. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  10. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.