Faith & RitualGreek → English
Atheism
/ˈeɪθiɪzəm/noun
The absence or rejection of belief in any god.
The Greek roots
ἀ-
a-
not, without
θεός
theós
god
Literally: “godlessness”
The story of the word
ἄθεος in Greek was mostly an insult, and it could cut two ways: a person who denied the gods, or a person the gods had abandoned. Socrates was tried on a charge close to it, for not acknowledging the city's gods. Roman officials then used the word against Christians, who refused the state cults, so the first people called atheists in the Christian era were Christians. English adopted it in the 1580s.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → French → English
- First recorded
- 1580s
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
theismatheistapathyamoraltheology
In a sentence
He described his atheism as a slow drift rather than a decision.