Everyday LifeGreek → English
Sebastian
/səˈbæstiən/noun
A male given name.
The Greek roots
σεβαστός
sebastós
venerable, august
σέβεσθαι
sébesthai
to revere
Literally: “venerable one”
The story of the word
Σεβαστός was the Greek translation of the Roman imperial title Augustus, and cities across the eastern empire renamed themselves Sebaste in the emperor's honour. Sebastianus meant a man from one of them, most probably Sebastia in Cappadocia. The soldier-martyr Sebastian carried the name into Christian Europe, where painters settled on the scene of him tied to a post and shot full of arrows. The same root gives εὐσέβεια, the Greek word for piety.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → French → English
Same family
SebastopolAugustus
In a sentence
They named the second boy Sebastian and then called him Seb for twenty years.