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κυριακόν

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Etymology and origin of the Ancient Greek word κυριακόν

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
c. 300 Edict of Maximinus, quoted by Eusebius More words from the 3rd century
Ultimate origin
Ancient Greek κύριος

Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /kyː.ri.a.kón/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /cy.ri.aˈkon/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /cy.ri.aˈkon/[1]

Forms

κῡρῐᾰκόν (kūriakón) n (genitive κῡρῐᾰκοῦ)[1]

Etymology

It is the neuter of the adjective from Ancient Greek κυριακός (kuriakós, “of the lord”), used as a noun, with δῶμα (dôma, “house”) understood: “the Lord's house”.[1][2] The adjective is formed from κύριος (kúrios, “lord”), and Spicq notes that it was not a biblical coinage but a word of the official language, meaning “imperial, belonging to the emperor”.[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

LSJ cites it from an edict of Maximinus preserved by Eusebius, meaning the Lord's house, a church,[2] and Etymonline dates this use to about AD 300.[2][5]

Semantic evolution

The adjective κυριακός (kuriakós) meant “belonging to the emperor” in papyri and inscriptions from AD 68 on, and St Paul and St John took it over for “the Lord's”: “the Lord's supper”, “the Lord's day”.[4][6][2] The neuter noun named a house of Christian worship, mainly in the East, though it was less common in that sense than ἐκκλησία (ekklēsía) or βασιλική (basilikḗ).[5][7]

It is probably the source, through an unrecorded Gothic word, of the West Germanic word for a church: Old English cirice, German Kirche and English church.[5]

Timeline

  • 3rd–4th century AD – Eusebius quotes an edict of Maximinus that uses it of the Lord's house,[2][8] and Etymonline dates its use for a church to about AD 300.[5]
  • Modern Greek – The adjective lives on in Κυριακή (Kyriakí), Sunday, and in learned phrases.[9][3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (Christianity) The Lord's house, a church.[2][7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
  4. ^ a b Spicq, Ceslas (1994), Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, tr. James D. Ernest, 3 vols, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  5. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ 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
  7. ^ a b Korinthios, J. (2025), Grande Dizionario Greco Classico: Greco–Italiano, digital ed., Milan: Hoepli
  8. ^ Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
  9. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Cite this entry

“Κυριακόν.” Etymologically, 13 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/grc/%CE%BA%CF%85%CF%81%CE%B9%CE%B1%CE%BA%CF%8C%CE%BD. Accessed 13 Nov. 2026.

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