Faith & RitualGreek → English
Agape
/ˈæɡəpeɪ/noun
Self-giving love, distinguished in Christian thought from desire and from friendship, and the shared meal named after it.
The Greek roots
ἀγάπη
agápē
love, esteem, regard
Literally: “loving regard”
Follow a root:ἀγάπη1 word
The story of the word
The New Testament chose ἀγάπη over ἔρως and φιλία, and the noun was rare enough in earlier Greek that the Septuagint translators effectively made its career. It also names the meal early Christians ate together, the love-feast that Paul complains about in his first letter to Corinth when the rich arrive early and eat everything. The English word agape meaning open-mouthed is a different animal: a plus gape, with no Greek in it at all.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Late Latin → English
- First recorded
- 17th century
In a sentence
The sermon turned on the gap between agape and anything he had felt that week.
Their Thursday agape started as a shared meal and stayed one.