theologus

Forms

theologus m (genitive theologī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek θεολόγος (theológos, “one who speaks of the gods, theologian”).^[1][2][3] The first part of the Greek word is θεός (theós, “god”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero uses it in De natura deorum for those who write about the gods and their genealogies.^[5][6][4]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin a theologus was a person who gives an account of the gods,^[2][7] and Arnobius uses it in the same sense.^[5][6] Augustine has it in The City of God.^[8]

In medieval Latin the word was applied above all to John, the author of the Apocalypse, as the one through whom God speaks: Alcuin calls him the foremost of the theologi.^[7] It came to mean a theologian, a scholar of Christian doctrine.^[9][1] Neo-Latin also made it an adjective, “learned in theology”, with the superlative theologissimus in a letter of 1513.^[10]

Its descendants include Italian teologo, Spanish teólogo and Romanian teolog.^[1]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of writers on the gods.^[5][4]
• 297–310 AD – Arnobius uses it in the same sense.^[5][4]
• 413–426 AD – Augustine uses it in The City of God.^[8]
• 1513 – A Neo-Latin letter praises men as theologissimi, “most learned in theology”.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. One who writes or speaks about the gods and divine things.^[2][5]
2. (Ecclesiastical Latin) A theologian.^[9][1]
3. (Medieval Latin) One through whom God speaks, especially John as author of the Apocalypse.^[7]

Word family

• theologicus

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b c Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
10. ^ a b Ramminger, Johann, Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700, www.neulatein.de