καθολικός

Forms

κᾰθολῐκός (katholikós) m (feminine κᾰθολῐκή, neuter κᾰθολῐκόν); first/second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Ancient Greek καθόλου (kathólou, “on the whole, in general”) + -ικός (-ikós).^[1][2][3] The adverb is itself the phrase κατά (katá) with ὅλος (hólos, “whole”), “according to the whole”.^[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Hippocratic treatise Internal Affections, of the 5th century BC, which speaks of a “general” dropsy, one spread through the whole body.^[2][6][7]

Semantic evolution

In the philosophers, historians and grammarians the word meant “general” as against particular: the Stoics used the neuter for a generic description, Polybius contrasts general history with particular accounts, Sextus Empiricus sets general arguments against specific ones, and Herodian wrote a General Prosody.^[2][8] The title of the First Epistle of Peter calls it a “catholic”, a general letter, addressed to all Christians.^[2][9] As a noun, ὁ καθολικός was a financial official, the supervisor of the imperial accounts, the Latin rationalis; later the title was used only in the church, of an abbot over several monasteries and, in the Christian East, of bishops and of the heads of whole national churches such as those of Armenia and Georgia.^[2][10]

The phrase “catholic church”, the church as a whole as against a single congregation, is found from Ignatius of Antioch in the early 2nd century AD, and in the 4th century it entered the Creed.^[4][6] After the schism of 1054 the word came to name the Roman Catholic, Western church.^[6][5] Medieval Latin borrowed it as Latin catholicus.^[11] In Medieval Greek it meant general, whole, complete or principal.^[12] Today Modern Greek καθολικός (katholikós) is the learned word for “universal”, which takes its church and theological senses from Hellenistic Greek, and a second word of the same spelling means “Roman Catholic”.^[9] Its derivatives include learned coinages after French, such as καθολικισμός (katholikismós) for catholicisme.^[6]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – The Hippocratic Internal Affections uses it of a general dropsy.^[2][6]
• 2nd century BC – Polybius uses it for general as opposed to particular history.^[2][8]
• 1st century BC – Dionysius of Halicarnassus and Philodemus use it for general rules and summaries.^[2][13]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Ignatius of Antioch speaks of the “catholic church”.^[6][4]
• 2nd century AD – Galen uses it as a noun for an imperial accounts official.^[2]
• 4th century AD – The word enters the Creed: “one, holy, catholic and apostolic church”.^[6][5]
• 1054 – After the schism the word comes to name the Western church.^[6]
• 1100–1669 – Vernacular texts use it for general, whole, complete and principal.^[12]
• Modern Greek – καθολικός (katholikós) means “universal”, and as a separate word “Roman Catholic”.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. General, as opposed to specific or detailed.^[2][8]
2. Of general interest; addressed to all, as the “catholic” epistles.^[2]
3. Universal.^[2][4]
4. (Christianity) Of the whole church as opposed to a single congregation; catholic.^[4][6]

Noun

1. A supervisor of the imperial accounts, the Latin procurator a rationibus or rationalis.^[2][10]
2. (Byzantine) An abbot over several monasteries; in the Christian East, a bishop or the head of a national church.^[10]

Related words

• καθόλου (kathólou)
• ὅλος (hólos)
• Latin catholicus

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ Köbler, Gerhard, Griechisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, online ed., https://www.koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c d e Bauer, Walter; Danker, Frederick W., et al. (2000), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press
5. ^ a b c Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
7. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
8. ^ a b c Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
9. ^ a b c Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
10. ^ a b c Cancik, Hubert; Schneider, Helmuth, eds. (2002–2010), Brill's New Pauly: Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World, Leiden: Brill
11. ^ Βικιλεξικό, the Greek Wiktionary, https://el.wiktionary.org
12. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
13. ^ Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge