Everyday LifeGreek → English
Christina
/krɪˈstiːnə/proper noun
A female given name meaning a Christian woman.
The Greek roots
Χριστός
Khristós
anointed one
Literally: “belonging to the anointed one”
Follow a root:Χριστός5 words
The story of the word
Χριστός is a translation rather than a name: Greek-speaking Jews used it for Hebrew mashiach, the anointed, because χρίω is what you do with oil. Latin Christiana produced the given name, and Christina of Sweden, who abdicated her throne in 1654 and moved to Rome, carried it across Europe. The oil itself, χρῖσμα, comes into English as chrism and, blended along the way with a Latin word for cream, lies behind cream.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
Christianchristenchrismcream
In a sentence
Christina answers to Kiki with family and to nothing else with anyone.