baptizo

Forms

baptizō (present infinitive baptizāre, perfect active baptizāvī, supine baptizātum); first conjugation^[1] Manuscripts and Christian inscriptions also have the spellings baptidio, baptizio and babtizo.^[2][3][1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek βαπτίζω (baptízō, “to dip, immerse”),^{[4][3][5][6][7]} which Wiktionary analyses as βάπτω (báptō, “to dip”) with the verbal suffix -ίζω (-ízō).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is a word of Church Latin,^[4][5] found from Tertullian (c. 160–220 AD) on in the sense to baptize.^[4][8]

Semantic evolution

In the Latin Bible and the Church Fathers it is the usual word for administering baptism, as in the Gospel line ego baptizo vos in aqua “I baptize you with water”.^[9][10][4] It kept the older, general sense of washing or bathing: in the Book of Judith a woman bathes in a spring (se baptizabat).^[4][3][9] The cookery book of Apicius uses it of sprinkling or moistening food.^[3][11]

Medieval writers used it of the conversion of pagans and Jews, of naming at baptism and of the godparent's role, and also of the blessing of church bells and of superstitious and magical rites performed on wax images.^[6] In Hungary it also came to mean simply to name or call.^[12] The word passed into French, from which English took baptize about 1300,^[7] and into the Romance languages of the east, as Romanian boteza.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian uses it for baptism.^[4][8]
• beginning of 3rd century–258 AD – Cyprian uses it in his letters.^[9][8]
• after 220 AD – The Old Latin Gospels have ego baptizo vos in aqua.^[9][8]
• 4th century AD – Apicius uses it of sprinkling food.^[3][8]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it both for baptizing and, in Judith, for bathing.^[4][3][8]
• c. 1300 – English borrows it, through Old French, as baptize.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. (Late Latin) To dip or bathe in water; reflexive, to bathe oneself.^[1][4][9]
2. (Late Latin) To sprinkle or moisten (food).^[3][11]
3. (Ecclesiastical Latin) To baptize.^[4][13][5]
4. (Medieval Latin) To bless (a church bell) with a rite modelled on baptism.^[6]
5. (Medieval Latin) To name, call.^[12]

Word family

• baptizātiō
• baptizātor
• rebaptizo

Related words

• baptisma
• baptismum
• baptista
• baptistērium
• English baptize

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e f g Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
6. ^ a b c Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
9. ^ a b c d e Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
10. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
11. ^ a b VoLat: Vocabolario della Lingua Latina (2018), Milan: Hoepli
12. ^ a b Bartal, Antal, et al. (1987–), Lexicon Latinitatis Medii Aevi Hungariae, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó; online ed. ELTE
13. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson