• evangelical •
Pronunciation: e-væn-jel-i-kêl • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Adjective, noun
Meaning: 1. In accordance with or related to the Christian gospel as reflected in the four Gospels of the New Testament. 2. (Evangelical) Protestant, of or related to several Protestant sects, especially in Germany. 3. (Evangelical) Fundamentalist, believing that the literal interpretation of the Bible is fundamental to Christian teaching, emphasizing preaching over ritual, and the necessity of conversion. 4. Zealously passionate, with crusading enthusiasm, fervently committed.
Notes: This word started out as evangelic but the longer evangelical is by far more frequently used than the shorter version now. It can also, as a noun, refer to someone who espouses the beliefs mentioned above. The adverb is evangelically and the quality of being evangelical may be expressed as either evangelicity or evangelicalness.
In Play: This word is usually used in a religious context: "Pierce Deer's Evangelical roommate vigorously insists that you cannot be a true Christian and an evolutionist." However, it has secular uses, too: "Rick O'Shea pressed ideas that were to the left of the New Deal with evangelical fervor."
Word History: Today's Good Word came from Old French evangelique, the remains of Latin evangelicus. Latin built its word on a borrowing from Greek, euangelistes "gospel preacher", literally "bringer of good news", the personal noun from euangelizesthai "to bring good news", made up of eu(s) "good" + angellein "to announce", from angelos "messenger". Eus came from PIE (e)su- "good, noble, master", which became Sanskrit su- "good" and, perhaps, Latin erus "master, lord". Angel "divine messenger and intermediary of God" was borrowed from Old French angele (today ange), taken from Greek aggelos "messenger, envoy". No one knows where aggelos (pronounced angelos) came from. It was used to translate Hebrew malakh (yehowah) "messenger (of Jehovah)" in the Bible. The semantics are similar but not the pronunciation. (Today's very topical Good Word is yet another thought from Grandmaster of GW suggestions and active Agoran, George Kovac.)
