Etymologically
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religio

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [rɛˈlɪ.ɡi.oː][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [reˈliː.d͡ʒi.o][1]

Forms

religiō f (genitive religiōnis); third declension[1]

Etymology

Its origin was disputed in antiquity and still is.[2][3] Cicero derived it from relegere (“to go over again, consider carefully”), while Servius, Lactantius and Augustine took it from religāre “to bind fast”, citing Lucretius' phrase religionum nodis (“the knots of religion”).[2] Lewis & Short say most modern scholars prefer religāre, but the OLD leaves it open between ligō and legō, and the TLL and Georges derive it from a third-conjugation verb *religō (“to heed”).[2][3][4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has “it put a scruple in my way, I'll go back there”.[3] Köbler dates Plautus c. 250–184 BC.[6]

Semantic evolution

It first meant a feeling of supernatural constraint acting as a check, a scruple of conscience, and a state of guilt from breaking divine law.[3] It meant a sign of divine will, as Virgil's favourable omen, a religious sanction, a sense of the presence of divine power, awe, as Cicero's question to Verres whether Diana stirred no awe in him, and the sanctity of a person, place or thing.[3]

It meant religious observance and rites, a particular cult, and conscientiousness in one's obligations, as Cicero's erga deos religio.[3] In poetry the first syllable is long, spelled relligio.[3][2] In Late Latin it became a religion, a system of belief, and in medieval Latin piety, the monastic life and a religious community.[1][7] Isidore says that through it we bind our souls to the one God.[8] English religion was borrowed around 1200, first meaning the life of monastic vows.[9]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of a scruple.[3][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero derives it from relegere.[2][6]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of a divine sign.[3][6]
  • c. 560–636 AD – Isidore explains it from religare.[8][6]
  • c. 1200 – English religion is recorded.[9]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A scruple, a feeling of religious constraint.[3][1]
  2. A divine sign; a religious sanction.[3]
  3. Religious awe, fear of the gods.[3][1]
  4. Sanctity; a holy thing or place.[3][1]
  5. Religious observance; a cult.[3][1]
  6. Conscientiousness.[3][1]
  7. (Late Latin) A religion, a system of belief.[1]
  8. (Medieval Latin) Piety; the monastic life; a religious community.[7]

Word family

  • irreligio
  • religiōsus

Usage notes

Döderlein says religio is conscientiousness from an inward obligation, fides from an outward one, a promise.[10]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  8. ^ a b Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
  9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  10. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper