apostasy
Meaningdefection
Common meaning: abandonment of a religious belief or allegiance
- apooff, away fromSkeat, Etymological Dictionary (1898), p. 28 · scan
- stasya standing; a settingLiddell & Scott, Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon (1889), p. 742 · scan
‘off, away from’ + ‘a standing’ → apostasy
Journey through time
- apo — Greek apo- “off, away from” (path traced)
- stasy — Greek στάσις (ἵστημι) “a standing; a setting” (path traced)
Parts join in Greek as apostasia.
- Aryan root · reconstructed√STA‘stand, whence various extended forms’No written record; from Skeat’s list of Aryan roots, no. 418, p. 745 · scan
- Greekapo- + στάσις‘off, away from + a standing; a setting’source
- Greekapostasia‘defection’source
- Frenchmeaning shiftsdefection → an apostasieapostasie‘an apostasie’source
- Englishmeaning shiftsan apostasie → abandonment of a religious belief or allegianceapostasy‘abandonment of a religious belief or allegiance’ · today
Sources & notes
Meaning: “Meaning” is the sense that emerges from the word’s roots; “Common meaning” is today’s everyday sense. Both written by us.
Pronunciation
- UK IPA: not available. Respelling: generated.
- US IPA: not available. Respelling: generated.
Origin: Built on Greek apostasia, which Skeat analyses as apo- ‘off, away from’ + στάσις ‘a standing; a setting’.
Roots
- apostasia Greek “defection”
- στάσις (ἵστημι) Greek “a standing; a setting”
Related words
Building blocks are an automatic split · open in app