Faith & RitualGreek → English
Christian
/ˈkrɪstʃən/noun
A follower of Jesus, or anything belonging to the religion founded on him.
The Greek roots
Χριστός
Christós
anointed one
χρίω
chríō
to anoint, rub on
Literally: “of the anointed one”
The story of the word
Χριστός is a translation, not a name: it renders Hebrew mashiach, the anointed, from the oil poured over a king's head. The verb χρίω is ordinary Greek for smearing on ointment, so the word landed on a Greek ear closer to "the oiled one" than to anything majestic. Acts says the followers were first called Χριστιανοί at Antioch, and the -ianus ending is Latin, the Roman way of labelling somebody's faction.
- 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
ChristchristenchrismChristmas
In a sentence
She was raised Christian and stopped going at sixteen.
The village kept its Christian burial ground on the hill.