religio

See also: religio-, relígió, and religió

Esperanto

Etymology

From Latin religiō.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /reliˈɡio/

• Audio 1:

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• Audio 2:

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• Rhymes: -io
• Syllabification: re‧li‧gi‧o

Noun

religio (accusative singular religion, plural religioj, accusative plural religiojn)

1. religion

Derived terms

• religia
• religiulo

Ido

Alternative forms

• religyo (archaic)

Etymology

Borrowed from Esperanto religio, English religion, French religion, German Religion, Italian religione, Russian рели́гия (relígija) and Spanish religión, all ultimately from Latin religiō. The -n- in the source languages was omitted in order for religioza to match counterparts in natural languages.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /reˈliɡi̯o/
• Hyphenation: re‧li‧gio

Noun

religio (plural religii)

1. religion

Derived terms

• religiala (“religious (pertaining to religion)”)
• religiema (“religious, pious (of people, inclined to religion, with religious sentiment)”)
• religioza (“religious (of people)”)
  • religiozeso (“religiousness”)
• religiano (“believer in a religion; faithful, true believer”)

Latin

Alternative forms

• relligiō

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Italic *wre-

Latin re-

Proto-Indo-European *leǵ-

Proto-Indo-European *-eti

Proto-Indo-European *léǵeti

Proto-Italic *legō

Latin legō

Latin relegōder.?

▲

Latin re-

Proto-Indo-European *leyǵ-der.

Latin ligō

Latin religōder.?

Proto-Indo-European *-ōder.

Proto-Indo-European *-Hōder.?

Latin -ō

Latin -iō

Latin religio

Attested in classical Latin (1st century BCE); perhaps from the unattested verb *religō (“to observe, to venerate”) +‎ -io, which could go back (via Proto-Italic *legō (“to care”)) to Proto-Indo-European *h₂leg-. (Can this⁽⁺⁾ etymology be sourced?) Frequently used by Cicero, who alternatively linked the word with relegō. Afterwards, the word was linked (mainly by Christian authors) to religō and obligātiō. De Vaan (2008:341), too, tentatively suggests a connection to ligō (“to bind”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [rɛˈlɪ.ɡi.oː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [reˈliː.d͡ʒi.o]

Noun

religiō f (genitive religiōnis); third declension

1. scrupulousness, conscientious exactness
2. piety, religious scruple, religious awe, superstition, strict religious observance
3. scruples, conscientiousness
4. religious obligation, sacred obligation
   • 27 BCE – 25 BCE, Titus Livius, Ab urbe condita II.32:

     nullam scelere religionem exsolvi

     • Translation by Rev. Canon Roberts

       No religious obligation could be dissolved by a crime

5. (of religious objects) sanctity
   • 70 BCE, Cicero, In Verrem 2.1.46:

     Est enim tanta apud eos eius fani religio atque antiquitas ut in eo loco ipsum Apollinem natum esse arbitrentur.

     The sanctity and antiquity of that temple is so great that they think Apollo himself was born in that place.

6. an object of worship, holy thing or place

   Synonym: sacrum

7. religious offence

   religiōnem facere ― to make a religious offence

   • 27 BCE – 25 BCE, Titus Livius, Ab urbe condita 9.29:

     Traditur inde, dictu mirabile et quod dimovendis statu suo sacris religionem facere posset, cum duodecim familiae ea tempestate Potitiorum essent, puberes ad triginta, omnes intra annum cum stirpe exstinctos; […]

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

8. (Late Latin) a system of religious belief, religion

Declension

Third-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	religiō	religiōnēs
genitive	religiōnis	religiōnum
dative	religiōnī	religiōnibus
accusative	religiōnem	religiōnēs
ablative	religiōne	religiōnibus
vocative	religiō	religiōnēs

Related terms

• religiōsus
• cuius regiō, eius religiō

Descendants

• Aragonese: relichión
• Catalan: religió
• Italian: religione f
  • → Sicilian: riliggiuni
• → Old French: religion, religioun (learned)
  • Middle French: religion
    • French: religion
  • Norman: r'ligion
  • → Middle Dutch: religie
    • Dutch: religie
      • → Indonesian: religi
  • → Middle English: religioun
    • English: religion
    • Scots: releegion
  • → Irish: reiligiún
• Portuguese: religião
• Romanian: religie f
• Sicilian: rilijuni
• Spanish: religión f
• → Esperanto: religio
• → German: Religion f
• → Polish: religia
  • → Russian: религия (religija)
    • → Ingrian: religia
    • → Kildin Sami: религия (r’eligija)
• → Serbo-Croatian: religija f

Further reading

• “religio”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “religio”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• religio in Enrico Olivetti, editor (2003-2026), Dizionario Latino, Olivetti Media Communication
• "religio", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “religio”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894), Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • one thing still makes me hesitate: unus mihi restat scrupulus (Ter. Andr. 5. 4. 37) (cf. too religio, sect. XI. 2)
    
  • to honour the gods with all due ceremonial (very devoutly): deum rite (summa religione) colere
    
  • ritual; ceremonial: sacra, res divinae, religiones, caerimoniae
    
  • to inspire with religious feeling, with the fear of God: imbuere (vid. sect. VII. 7, note imbuere...) pectora religione
    
  • to fill the souls of one's audience with devotion: audientium animos religione perfundere (Liv. 10. 388)
    
  • to banish devout sentiment from the minds of others: religionem ex animis extrahere (N. D. 1. 43. 121)
    
  • to annihilate all religious feeling: omnem religionem tollere, delere
    
  • to shake the foundations of religion: religionem labefactare (vid. sect. V. 7, note In Latin metaphor...)
    
  • to have power over the people by trading on their religious scruples: religione obstrictos habere multitudinis animos (Liv. 6. 1. 10)
    
  • to inspire some one with religious scruples: religionem alicui afferre, inicere, incutere
    
  • to make a thing a matter of conscience, be scrupulous about a thing: aliquid religioni habere or in religionem vertere
    
  • to make a thing a matter of conscience, be scrupulous about a thing: aliquid in religionem alicui venit
    
  • absence of scruples, unconscientiousness: nulla religio
    
  • to embrace a strange religion: religionem externam suscipere
    
  • to introduce a new religion, a new cult: novas religiones instituere
    
  • a religious war: bellum pro religionibus susceptum
    
  • to invoke an irrevocable curse on the profanation of sacred rites: violatas caerimonias inexpiabili religione sancire (Tusc. 1. 12. 27)
    
  • to keep one's oath: iusiurandum (religionem) servare, conservare
    
• “religio”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers

Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /rɛˈli.ɡjɔ/
• Rhymes: -iɡjɔ
• Syllabification: re‧li‧gio

Noun

religio

1. vocative singular of religia