Etymologically
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religiosus

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [rɛ.lɪ.ɡiˈoː.sʊs][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [re.li.d͡ʒiˈɔː.s̬us][1]

Forms

religiōsus (feminine religiōsa, neuter religiōsum, comparative religiōsior, superlative religiōsissimus, adverb religiōsē); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

It is from religiō “religious scruple, religion” with the suffix -ōsus.[2][1][3] Virgil scans its first syllable long, and poets write ⟨rellig-⟩.[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's earliest citation is from Plautus, of someone full of religious scruple.[2] Köbler dates Plautus c. 250–184 BC.[5]

Semantic evolution

It meant full of religious scruples, and in Terence superstitious.[2] Of acts it meant forbidden by divine law, taboo, and diēs religiōsus a day on which business was banned, as in Lucilius.[2] It meant devoted to religious use, sacred, and in Gaius' law, as distinct from sacer and sānctus, dedicated to the dead.[2] It meant invested with awe, reverent, devout, and in Cicero scrupulous, conscientious, as his testis religiōsus “a scrupulous witness”.[2][6] Cicero contrasts the religiōsī, who carefully go over all that concerns the worship of the gods, with the superstitiōsī.[3][4]

In Ecclesiastical Latin it meant religious, pious, God-fearing, conscientious, and as a noun a member of a religious community.[7] Medieval Latin used it of one devoted to the ascetic life.[8] English religious came about 1200 through Anglo-French, also of a member of a religious order.[9]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of religious scruple.[2][5]
  • 190–159 BC – Terence uses it of superstition.[2][5]
  • c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius uses diēs religiōsus.[2][5]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of the devout and the scrupulous.[2][5]
  • c. 1200 – English religious is recorded.[9]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Full of religious scruple; superstitious.[2]
  2. Forbidden by divine law, diēs religiōsus, a day of religious ban.[2]
  3. Sacred, (law) dedicated to the dead.[2]
  4. Awe-inspiring; reverent.[2]
  5. Devout, religious.[2]
  6. Scrupulous, conscientious.[2]
  7. (Ecclesiastical Latin) As a noun, a member of a religious order.[7]

Word family

  • irreligiōsus
  • religiōsitās
  • religiosulus

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  8. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com