Etymograph

English

bishop

Bishop comes from Old English bisċop, from Vulgar Latin (e)biscopus, from Latin episcopus, from Greek ἐπίσκοπος ‘overseer’.

  1. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEἐπίσκοπος‘overseer’
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEepiscopus‘overseer’
  3. Vulgar Latinc. 100–700 CEbiscopus
  4. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*biskopreconstructed
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150bisċop‘bishop’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500bischop
  7. Englishearliest quotation c. 1000bishop

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEἐπίσκοπος‘overseer’
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEepiscopus‘overseer’
  3. Vulgar Latinc. 100–700 CEbiscopus
  4. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*biskopreconstructed
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150bisċop‘bishop’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500bischop
  7. Englishearliest quotation c. 1000bishop

Earliest quotation: c. 1000, Thorpe's Laws: “Se bisceop biþ gesett... to bisceopgenne cild.”

Every English word from Ancient Greek ἐπίσκοπος

Today it means

noun An overseer of congregations: either any such overseer, generally speaking, or (in Eastern Orthodoxy, Catholicism, Anglicanism, etc.) an official in the church hierarchy (actively or nominally) governing a diocese, supervising the church's priests, deacons, and property in its territory.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Ancient Greek ἐπίσκοπος / bishop

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