Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “religious” come from?

Religious derives from Middle English religiouse, from Anglo-Norman religieus, from Latin religiosus, formed with the suffix -osus from religo, meaning to bind or tie back, ultimately from Latin ligo meaning to bind.

religious (English): Concerning religion; Committed to the practice or...

Definitions

  1. Concerning religion; Committed to the practice or...

Ancestry of “religious”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Latinreligiositasreligiousness
2Latinreligiōsus—
3Latinreligiō—
4Latinreligō—
5Latinrĕ-—
6Latinprōdūcō—
7Latinprō-—
8Proto-Italic*pro-—
9Proto-Indo-Europeanpro-toward, forward
10Proto-Indo-Europeanpor-to give birth; forward, through; going, passage
11Proto-Indo-Europeanper-before, in front; first; to go through
12Proto-Indo-Europeanpr̥tóspassed , crossed

Words derived from “religious”

  • religiously
  • religiosity
  • nonreligious
  • interreligious
  • religiousness
  • antireligious
  • multireligious
  • ethnoreligious
  • socioreligious
  • unreligious
  • quasireligious
  • semireligious
  • politicoreligious
  • areligious
  • pseudoreligious
  • magicoreligious
  • intrareligious
  • ultrareligious
  • postreligious
  • hyperreligiosity
  • parareligious
  • monoreligious
  • nonreligiously
  • suprareligious
Every word from Proto-Indo-European pr̥tós →