Does pagan come from village?

The Latin word pagus means village.

The Latin word paganus means pagan.

Is this just a coincidence? Or are these words in etymological connection?


The word paganus = rural got a transferred sense already before the emergence of Christianity, namely in the Roman army. Draftees or civilians were called paganus. And of course - like in every urbanizing society - the word also obtained an overtone illiterate.

Then, when Christianity began to spread in the Roman Empire, oppidans converted to Christianity sooner. For a certain period the oppidans were mostly Christian, while rural people were still mostly sticking with the old Roman religion. This is when the word's meaning developed further: paganus obtained the sense pagan. According to some opinions, the already existing military association of ideas could play a role, too: oppidans were Christ's soldiers, rurals civilians.

So the English word pagan comes directly from this Latin word, just as French paien, Italian and Spanish pagano, Serbian-Croatian poganski, Slovenian pogan, Slovak pohan, Hungarian pogány.

Modern languages may have taken over words directly from Latin (this happened with angelus - Hungarian angyal, English angel) or through another language like:
Latin cerasium/cerisia - Slavic cresnja - Hungarian cseresznye
Latin cerasium/cerisia - Anglo-Norman cherise (mistaken as a plural) - Middle English chery


We wish you the best of luck in your research,

Judit and István

from Historia Translation


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