English
sermon
Sermon comes from Middle English sermoun ‘a sermon’.
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500sermoun‘a sermon’
- Englishearliest quotation 1918sermon
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500sermoun‘a sermon’
- Englishearliest quotation 1918sermon
Earliest quotation: 1918, William Babington Maxwell, Indianapolis: “One saint's day in mid-term a certain newly appointed…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *ser- ‘to bind’
service, sort, series, stream, hero, serve, conservative, desert, reservoir, insert, heresy, exert, assertion, conservatism, sorcery, sorcerer, assertive, heretic, concierge, observant, sark, servitude, strudel, conservator, servile, serf, sere, 34 more
Today it means
noun Religious discourse; a written or spoken address on a religious or moral matter.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Middle English sermoun / sermon