church, noun

Many of the words so far have come into English from Latin. This time we have a word that sounds more Germanic. Church in Middle-English is chireche, chirche, or kirke. In Anglo-Saxon there is cirice and cyrice. Today a German says die Kirche. It looks practically the same as the Middle-English, doesn’t it ?

Surprisingly, to me, my Webster’s lists Late-Greek roots also! Kyriakon, meaning house of the Lord is from kyriake (doma), meaning Lord’s (house) , from kyriakos, belong to the Lord, and that from kyriso, a master or ruler, which itself derives from kyros, meaning supreme power.

After all that etymological information one doesn’t really need a dictionary definition. The Late-Greek roots seem to say it all. Well, they give important meaning to our English word, but there is more.

My desk dictionary lists 7 (an appropriate number) definitions for the noun; summarized:

1) a building for worship
2) public religious service
3) all Christians [the body of Christ (dAb)]
4) a certain denomination or sect of Christians
5) the government or power of a denomination as opposed to secular government.
6) The clerical profession
7) A group of worshippers.

Other parts of speech:

Transitive verb (verb with an object)

1) to say prayers over a woman after childbirth.

Adjective:

1) having to do with organized Christian worship
2) of or connected with a church.

Related words:

Churchgoer, noun
Churchgoing, n. and adj.
Churchless, adj.
Churchliness, n.
Churchly, adj.
Churchman, n.
Churchwoman, n.
Churchyard, n.


The first usage of seventy-seven (nice number!) in my NIV Bible is Matt. 16:18. “ And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it”

The seventy-seventh usage is in Rev. 3:14. “ REV 3:14 "To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God's creation. 15 I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot.”


Here is some additional info from the Online Entomological Dictionary:

Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source

"Gk. kyriakon (adj.) "of the Lord" was used of houses of Christian worship since c.300, especially in the East, though it was less common in this sense than ekklesia or basilike. An example of the direct Gk.-to-Gmc. progress of many Christian words, via the Goths; it was probably used by W.Gmc. people in their pre-Christian period. Also picked up by Slavic, via Gmc. (cf. O.Slav. criky, Rus. cerkov). Romance and Celtic languages use variants of L. ecclesia. Slang church key for "can or bottle opener" is from 1950s. Church-mouse, proverbial in many languages for its poverty, is 1731 in Eng."

The modern Greek word is “ekklesia.” French, eglise, and Spanish iglesia are closely related it appears. And the English “church” and German “Kirche” are very close relatives.

This word, "church," is interesting... When I attended the SDA seminary in Austria, we did not refer to the SDA church as die Kirche. When we *went to church* we were going to *die Kapelle* (the chapel). Die Kirche always referred to the Catholic church, both the building itself and the tenets of catholicism.