Faith & RitualGreek → English
Irenic
/aɪˈriːnɪk/adjective
Aimed at reconciliation rather than dispute, especially in religious argument.
The Greek roots
εἰρηνικός
eirēnikós
peaceful, peace-making
Literally: “belonging to peace”
Follow a root:εἰρηνικός1 word
The story of the word
Eirene was one of the Horae, and Athens set up a cult statue of her holding the infant Ploutos, Wealth, on her arm: peace as the thing that makes prosperity possible. Seventeenth-century Protestant scholars adopted irenics as the name for the branch of theology that works towards unity, the opposite number to polemics. The given name Irene is the same word unchanged.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → English
Same family
Ireneirenicseirenicon
In a sentence
He opened in an irenic tone, thanking his critics before taking their argument apart.