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Catholic

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: catholic

English

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Etymology

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From Old French catholique, from Latin catholicus, from Ancient Greek καθολικός (katholikós, “universal”), from κατά (katá, “according to”) + ὅλος (hólos, “whole”).

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ˈkæθ(ə)lɪk/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -æθəlɪk, -æθlɪk
  • Hyphenation: Cath‧o‧lic

Adjective

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Catholic (comparative more Catholic, superlative most Catholic)

  2. Of the Western Christian church, as differentiated from e.g. the Orthodox church.
    Christmas is celebrated at different dates in the Catholic and Orthodox calendars.
    Hypernym: Christian
    Coordinate term: Orthodox
    • 2003, Diarmaid MacCulloch, The Reformation: A History, Penguin, →ISBN, page xviii-xix:
      Who or what is a Catholic? This Greek word has become one of the chief battlegrounds in western Latin Christianity, for it is used in different ways which outside observers of Christian foibles find thoroughly confusing. The word ‘Catholic’ is the linguistic equivalent of a Russian doll. It may describe the whole Christian Church founded two thousand years ago in Palestine, or the western half of the Church which split from mainstream eastern Christianity a thousand years ago, or that part of the western half which remained loyal to the Bishop of Rome (the Pope) after the sixteenth century, or a Protestant European Christian who thought that the Bishop of Rome was Antichrist, or a modern ‘Anglo-Catholic’ faction within the Anglican Communion. How can the word describe all of these things and still have any meaning? I have written this book about the sixteenth-century Reformation in part to answer that question. The Reformation introduced many more complications to the word; in fact there were very many different Reformations, nearly all of which would have said that they were simply aimed at recreating authentic Catholic Christianity. For simplicity’s sake I will take for granted that this book examines multiple Reformations, some of which were directed by the Pope. From now on I will continue to use the shorthand term ‘Reformation’, but readers should therefore note that this is often intended to embrace both Protestantism and the religious movements commonly known as Tridentine Catholicism, the Catholic Reformation or Counter-Reformation: the revitalized part of the old Church which remained loyal to the Pope. ’Catholic’ is clearly a word which a lot of people want to possess. By contrast, it is remarkable how many religious labels started life as a sneer: the Reformation was full of angry words.
    2. Of the Roman Catholic church in particular.
      Hypernym: Christian
      Coordinate terms: Orthodox, Protestant
      The Church of the Sacred Heart is a Catholic one.
      Catholic churches are adorned differently from Protestant ones.
  3. Alternative letter-case form of catholic.

Derived terms

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Translations

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Noun

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Catholic (plural Catholics)

  2. A member of a Catholic (western Christian) church.
    Hypernyms: Christian < religionist < person
    Hyponyms: Roman Catholic, Anglican, Protestant, Quaker
    Coordinate term: Orthodox
    2. (elliptically, often) A member of the Roman Catholic Church (which is also elliptically called the Catholic Church).
      Synonym: Roman Catholic
      Coordinate terms: Orthodox, Anglican, Protestant, Quaker
      The wife of the Prime Minister is a Catholic.

Derived terms

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Translations

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Proper noun

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Catholic

  1. A surname.

Statistics

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  • According to the 2010 United States Census, Catholic is the 160975th most common surname in the United States, belonging to 100 individuals. Catholic is most common among Black/African-American (92%) individuals.

Anagrams

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