Faith & RitualGreek → English
Exorcism
/ˈɛksɔːrsɪzəm/noun
The ritual driving out of a spirit believed to possess a person or place.
The Greek roots
ἐξ
ex
out, thoroughly
ὅρκος
hórkos
oath
Literally: “binding by oath”
The story of the word
ἐξορκίζειν sounded legal before it sounded supernatural, meaning to put someone under oath, from ὅρκος, an oath. The grammar of the rite preserves that: the exorcist does not argue with the demon so much as swear it, adjuring it by a higher power to go. Greek magical papyri from Roman Egypt use the same formula of command, and the Latin rite inherited the structure whole.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Late Latin → Old French → English
- First recorded
- 15th century
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
exorcistexodusexotic
In a sentence
The diocese still keeps one priest trained in exorcism.
He described the meeting as an exorcism of everything the company had done wrong.