Is the word “church” pagan in origin?
Question:
I recently read something saying that the word "church" is pagan in origin, and it gives honor to the daughter of some sun god. I was able to find basically two different ideas on where the word comes from. Some say from "circe" which would have meant circle or been the name of this goddess, or "kuriakos" which would have referred to the house of the Lord. I was wondering if you knew anything on this as it seems most websites that talk about this seem to be in favor of it having pagan origins.
Answer:
The word "church" comes from the Greek word kyriakon meaning "of the Lord." It was used for houses of Christian worship since c.300 A.D. It came through the old Germanic languages and Dutch into English where spelling was loose and pronunciation changed.
Regardless of where a word originated in ancient history, the only important point is what does a word mean in the current language.
Response:
Thank you, Jeffrey. You have a good point.
