Etymologically
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église

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /e.ɡliz/[1]

Forms

église f (plural églises)[1] Old French eglise, iglise, glise, egleise.[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French eglise, inherited from Vulgar Latin eclesia,[2][4][5][6][1][7] a frequent popular form of Christian Latin ecclēsia,[4][2] borrowed from Ancient Greek ἐκκλησία (ekklēsía, “assembly of citizens”), used in the New Testament for the assembly of Christians.[8][2][4] The Greek word comes from ἐκκαλέω (ekkaléō, “to call out, summon”), from καλέω (kaléō, “to call”).[3][6] Ecclesia meant the building as well as the community from the 2nd century.[4][2] Bloch and Wartburg note that the word's sound changes show the influence of the written language.[4]

Cognate with Italian chiesa, Spanish iglesia, Portuguese igreja and Catalan església;[4][1] Romanian and Rhaeto-Romance used basilica instead.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Vie de saint Alexis (about 1050) uses it for the building devoted to Christian worship.[8][2]

Semantic evolution

From the 12th century sainte eglise (1135) and la sainte mère eglise (about 1175) meant the whole body of Christians and the authority that governs it.[8][2] From the 16th century it is used of particular Christian communions, eclise romaine (Rabelais, 1546), the église gallicane, and after the Reformation the Reformed, Anglican and Baptist churches.[8][2] Gens d'église (1549) are the clergy,[8] and in the 19th century église came to mean, figuratively, any group bound by one doctrine (Goncourt, 1862).[8]

Timeline

  • c. 1050 – A church building (Alexis).[8][5]
  • 1135 – Sainte eglise, the body of believers.[8][2]
  • 1546 – Eclise romaine (Rabelais).[8][2]
  • 1549 – Gens d'eglise “clergy”.[8]
  • 1862 – A group sharing a doctrine (Goncourt).[8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A church, a building for Christian worship.[6][1]
  2. L'Église: the Christian Church, the community of believers.[6][1]
  3. A particular Christian denomination: l'Église orthodoxe.[6][1]
  4. The clergy, the ecclesiastical state: homme d'Église.[6][8]
  • ecclésiastique
  • Latin ecclēsia

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  3. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  5. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  6. ^ a b c d e f Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 3, 203a
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard