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The Etymology of Religion

Author(s): Sarah F. HoytReviewed work(s):Source: Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 32, No. 2 (1912), pp. 126-129Published by: American Oriental SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3087765 .

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The Etymology of Religion.-By SARAHF. HOYT, JohnsHopkins University, Baltimore, Md.TmE OxfordDictionary says, The connection of the wordreligion with religare, to bind, has usually been favoredby

modernwriters.This etymology, given by the Roman grammarian end of4th cent. A. D.) Servius (Relligio,id est metusab eo quodmentemreliget, dicta religio)' was supported by the Christian philo-sopher Lactantius (about 313 A. D.) who quotes the expressionof the celebrated Roman philosophical poet Lucretius (c. 96to 55 B. C.):2 religionum animum nodis exsolvere, in proof thathe considered ligare, to bind, to be the root of religio.3 Severalcommentators upon Lucretius, e. g. Merrill, Munro,4 Harper'sDictionary of Classical Literature and Antiquities (edited byHarry Thurston Peck, 1898) and also Joseph Mayor inhis commentary (2, 186) on Cicero's De Natura Deorum, agreethat this notion of binding was in the mind of Lucretius.St. Augustine, the most celebrated father of the Latin church,A. D. 354 430, makes this derivation. 5 The Century Dictionary,though referring to the uncertain origin of religio, cites theEnglish ligament as perhaps allied. So Harper's Latin Lexiconrefers to Corssen's Aussprache (1, 444sq.) as taking religioin the same sense as obligatio. Other Latin nouns like lictorand lex have the root lig.Especially the rare English words religate, religation suggestreligion as having the root religare, to bind; for Christopher

(1) See ad Vergil.Aen. 8, 349.(2) See De Rerum Natura, 1, 931; 4, 7.(3) In Institutiones Divinae, 4, 28, Lactantius writes, Credo nomenretigionis a vincutopietatis esse deductum, quod hominemsibi Deus reli-gaverit et pietate constrinxerit . .. melius ergo (quam Cicero) id nomenLucretius interpretatus est, qui ait religionum se nodos exsolvere.(4) See Merrill on T. Lucreti Cari De Rerum Natura, 1, 109. 932(pp. 289. 383), and H. A. J. Munro on Lucretius (Cambridge, 1873).(5) See Retractiones, 1, 13.

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Vol. xxxii.] The Etymology of Religion. 127Cartwright (1602-1658) wrote:1 They are not religated (orunited) within the same communion;and S. T. Coleridge(1772-1834): 2 It is not even religion; it doesnotreligate, doesnot bind anew; so W. E. Gladstone (1809-1898) said,3 Re-ligion ... with a debased worship appended to it, but with noreligating,no binding,power.But in De Natura Deorum, 2, 28, 72, Cicero derives religiofiom relegere, as meaning to go through or overagain in read-ing, speechor thought. Cicero says, Qui omniaquaead cultumdeorum ertinerent iligenterpertractarent,t tamquam elegerent,sunt dicti religiosi ex relegendo,ut elegantesex eligendo.In the Noctes Atticae (4, 9, 1) of the Roman grammarianAulus Gellius (2d cent. A. D.) is preserved an old verse whichsupports his derivation,Beligentem sse oportet, eligiosumnefas.Identical with relegere is the Greek &AEyetv,o heed, to havea care for; and in support of this derivation of the word re-ligion, Geo. Curtius quotes the Iliad (16, 388): Oe9Ov 7rtVOVKa CyOVTE9.

Professor Skeat, of the University of Cambridge, says inhis Etymological Dictionary, p. 500, Religion seems to be connec-ted with the English reck, to heed, to have a care for. FromTeutonic base rak, Aryan rag, the derivation may be tracedthrough Middle High-German, Middle English of Chaucer'stime, and Anglo-Saxon. In Mark 12, 14 we find Bu ne recst,Thou carest not.

Our term religion is used also in the sense scrupulosity,conscientious cruple.Ben Jonson (c. 1573-1637) says,4 Out of a religion tomy charge ... I have made a self-decree ne'er to express myperson.In the Authorized Version, religion is used of outward formsrather than of the inner spirit. In the Century Dictionarythe two passages, James 1, 26 and Acts 13, 43, are quoted.Religion was so used by Jeremy Taylor (c. 1613-1637) asmeaning the rites and ceremonies of religion: What she waspleasedto believeapt to minister o her devotions, nd thereligions

(1) See CertamenReligiosum by Chri s t op h er Cartwri gh t, publishedin 1649 by Thomas Baylie.(2) Co ttl e, Early Recollections, 2, 84.(3) Gleanings of Past Years, 8, 130.(4) See New Inn, 1, 1.


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128 Sarah F. Hoyt, [1912.of her pious and discerningsoul.' Latimer (c. 1485--1555)in his Sermons,2 writes, For religion standeth in, righteousness,justice, and well-doing. In Shakespeare's As you Like it(Act 4, Scene 1) Orlando says that he will religiouslykeep apromise.Religious means originallyobservant, onscientious,trict. Areligious Jew is a Jew who observes the rules of the Sabbath,the dietary laws, who does not neglect them. Relegere is op-posed to neglegere, which stands for neclegere, not observe, notheed, not attend to, be remiss in attention or duty toward athing. An irreligious Jew neglects the Law. Religion is akinto diligence, and opposed to negligence. The Greek LXEyELv isgenerally used with a negative, av'ic A'yELv,equivalent to Latinneglegere.Strict observance of law and conscience, heed of duty, in-volves taking pains, painstaking scrupulosity. This explainsthe connection of reliqion with aXyos, pain, and 8v0a-5y's, pain-ful. But, as Wald e says in his well-known Latin dictionary,3an idea of choice and interest may be connected with religion.Lat. diligo (that is, dis + lego) may be associated withreckoning, electing. There may be a picking out, as inthe German phrase, Soldaten ausheben, recruiting soldiers (soWalde).

If all points are carefully considered, Cicero's view wouldseem to be preferable, so that religion is not derived fromreligare, but from relegere. It is true that a clause fromCicero's OratiodeDorno,105 is cited, Nisi etiam muliebribusreligionibus te implicuisses, in proof that Cicero himself couldnot help connecting the word religio with the idea of obligation.So, in the SecondPhilippic,4 occurs religioneobstringere, ndin De Domo, 106. 124 we find doinun religione obligare.

But inconsistency occurs in the writings of all great men,-the present, of course, always excepted. The commentatormost sure of himself is usually the most mistaken-an ex-

(1) See the Works of Jeremy Taylor, 1, 756 (London, 1835).(2) See Sermon 21 of Hugh Latimer; edition of Rev. George E.

Corrie (Cambridge, 1844) 1, 392.(3) See A l o i s W a Id e, Lateinisches etymologisches T1orterbuch (Heidel-berg, 1906) pp. 176. 330.

(4) See Oratio Philippica, 2, 33. 83: Obstrinxisti religione populumRomanum.


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Vol. xxxii.] The Etymology of Religion. 129perience which has been brought home to me very forciblyin the Old Testament Seminary of the Johns Hopkins Uni-versity.I present this modest contribution to a most intricate problembefore this galaxy of distinguished comparative philologians,in the hope of getting some illuminative suggestions on a sub-ject in which I have always taken a profound interest.


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