Monotheism

The story of the word

Greek never needed the word; it was built out of Greek parts in England in the 1660s, by Henry More, who wanted a clean opposite for polytheism in an argument about pagan religion. The pattern is common in the vocabulary of religion: the category gets named from outside, by someone comparing systems rather than living in one. Judaism, Christianity and Islam all long predate any word for what they share.

How it travelled

Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English

First recorded

1660s