Faith & RitualGreek → English
Cleric
/ˈklɛrɪk/noun
A member of the clergy of any religion.
The Greek roots
κληρικός
klērikós
of the allotted portion
Literally: “one of the allotted share”
Follow a root:κληρικός2 words
The story of the word
κλῆρος is a lot, the pebble or potsherd drawn to divide land or pick a man. Acts 1 has the apostles casting lots to replace Judas, and the early church spoke of the ministry as the Lord's portion, so its members became κληρικοί. English received the word twice: clerk through Old English and French, cleric straight off the Latin in the 17th century.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Ecclesiastical Latin → English
- First recorded
- 1620s
Same family
clergyclerkclerical
In a sentence
A cleric in a grey cassock met us at the gate.