Faith & RitualGreek → English
Apostle
/əˈpɒsəl/noun
One of the men Jesus sent out to preach, or any pioneering missionary or advocate.
The Greek roots
ἀπό
apó
away, off
στέλλειν
stéllein
to send, dispatch
Literally: “one sent away”
The story of the word
Before the Gospels ἀπόστολος was a naval word: a fleet sent out on an expedition, or the admiral commanding it. Christian use put all the weight on the sending, which is what separates an apostle from a disciple. A μαθητής is a learner who stays; an ἀπόστολος is a learner who is dispatched. Old English had the word as apostol, taken from Latin, centuries before the French-looking spelling settled.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → Old English → English
- First recorded
- Old English
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
epistleapostolicperistalsis
In a sentence
The chapel has all twelve apostles carved along the screen.
He became an apostle of cheap rural broadband.