Faith & RitualGreek → English
Proselyte
/ˈprɒsəlaɪt/noun
A person who has converted from one religion or opinion to another.
The Greek roots
πρός
prós
toward
ἦλθον
êlthon
came, went
Literally: “one who has come over”
The story of the word
The translators of the Septuagint needed a Greek word for the Hebrew ger, the foreigner living settled among Israel, and built προσήλυτος, one who has come toward. Greek-speaking Jews then narrowed it to gentiles who took on the Law, and the New Testament follows that use. English had the noun by the late fourteenth century; the verb proselytise came much later and carries a sourness the noun never had.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Late Latin → English
- First recorded
- 14th century
Same family
proselytiseprosthesisprosody
In a sentence
The congregation was half proselytes, drawn in over two decades of quiet argument.