Christian
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈkɹɪʃt͡ʃən/
ipa: /ˈkɹɪstiən/
ipa: /ˈkɹɪst͡ʃən/
rhymes: -ɪstʃən
homophone: Cristian
Forms: form: more Christian
form: most Christian
form: christian
form: Xtian
form: Xian
Etymology: From Middle English Cristien, from Old French chrestien, from Latin Chrīstiānus, from Ancient Greek Χρῑστιᾱνός (Khrīstiānós), from Χρῑστός (Khrīstós, “Christ, anointed [one]”) + Latin suffix -ānus. The older form is Christen. Doublet of cretin. By surface analysis, Christ + -ian.
Senses: glosses: Of, like or relating to Christianity or Christians.
examples: text: While Christian churches allow lay believers in Jesus to do exorcism, Catholics limit the practice to selected priests.
ref: 2000 November 10, “The scourge of evil spirits”, in SCMP:
text: This is not to say that there is no discord within Christian and Catholic congregations on this issue.
ref: 2011, Denise Tse-Shang Tang, Conditional Spaces: Hong Kong Lesbian Desires and Everyday Life, Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, →ISBN, page 67:
text: When asked whether they are Christian, some Catholics respond, “No. I am Catholic.” Many Catholics see the Christian question as an attempt to discover whether they have accepted Christ in a way that is more representative of a Protestant or evangelical experience. Saying, “No, I’m not Christian” can also be a way to assert a student’s distinctively Catholic identity, even though they know Catholics are Christian because they believe in Christ.
ref: 2019, Katie Brick, J. Cody Nielsen, Greg Jao, Eric Paul Rogers, John A. Monson, “Understanding Christian Students on Campus”, in Kathleen M. Goodman, Mary Ellen Giess, Eboo Patel, editors, Educating About Religious Diversity and Interfaith Engagement: A Handbook for Student Affairs, Sterling, Virginia: Stylus Publishing, →ISBN:
glosses: Of, like or relating to Christianity or Christians.
Of, like or relating to Protestant Christians.
glosses: Of, like or relating to Jesus Christ.
examples: text: That’s very Christian of you.
text: I cannot help thinking there are people in the world who are very tiresome, very impertinent, and very disagreeable; yet, I don’t think it would be a very Christian act were I to tell them so.
ref: 1824, Susan Ferrier, The Inheritance:
text: I must say I have seen him do a very Christian act at the Fish River. Some Kafir women were there eating; he begged of them; they refused to give him any food. […] I gave him some of the victuals we were enjoying, and he instantly broke the bread, and gave of it to these very Kafir women who had just refused any of theirs.
ref: 1854, Nathaniel James Merriman, The Kafir, the Hottentot, and the frontier farmer, page 74:
text: “Besides this,” said the trapper, “it is hardly a Christian act to leave these two men to perish by the hands of the savages[…]”
ref: 1859, David W. Belisle, The American family Robinson, page 290:
text: So, in his esteem, an auto da fé — an “act of faith,” as the words mean — is really an act of faith — an act of such faith as the author of “Ecce Homo” approves — a most Christian act — a most humane act[…]
ref: 1867, Henry Shepheard, Ithuriel’s spear; or, Is this Christianity?, page 118:
text: I have only been at home two days, and here I am come on the third to see you and Tiny, so it is not Christian of you — as my mother would say — to receive your dutiful grand-nephew in such an unkind manner[…]
ref: c. 1867, Janet Robertson, Christine; or, Common-Place People:
text: “Why should I? It’s very Christian of you.” “People here do not think of me as a Christian, Mitti.” “I’d call it Christian charity,” I floundered. “You think Christians have a monopoly on charity?” she asked. “Well, no,” I stammered.
ref: 1981, Mary Leader, Salem’s Children, →ISBN, page 82:
text: Joyce […] must have found himself likewise in accord with Dante’s view that “The Goal of Mankind is Universal Peace,” a view to which Dante devoted an entire section of his treatise, and a view opposed to the protestant militancy of the more muscularly Christian Milton.
ref: 1995, Patrick Colm Hogan, Joyce, Milton, and the theory of influence, page 88:
text: I didn’t think it was very Christian of them, not to call back. Just downright Un-Christian.
ref: 1996 Nov-Dec, Richard Blow, “Al Franken”, in Mother Jones Magazine, volume 21, number 6:
text: Mood and hopes ran high. Onto the stage, into this mélange of black power, military symbolism, and Christian striving, walked Kathryn Johnson.
ref: 2009, Adriane Danette Lentz-Smith, Freedom Struggles: African Americans and World War I, page 209:
text: Henry Irving and other Victorian actors easily created empathy for Shylock, even in a muscularly Christian period.
ref: 2010, Linda Woodbridge, English Revenge Drama: Money, Resistance, Equality, page 268:
glosses: Kind, charitable; moral; a term of approbation.
Synonyms: sense: kind
word: charitable
sense: kind
word: helpful
sense: kind
word: kind
sense: kind
word: neighborly
sense: kind
word: neighbourly
sense: kind
word: sweet
Derived terms: Christian Bible
Christian Brother
Christian Iberia
Christian Identity
Christian-like
Christian metal
Christian name
Christian Palestinian Aramaic
Christian rap
Christian right
Christian rock
Christian soldier
Christian Universalism
Christian Zionism
cultural Christian
neo-Christian
out-Christian
Zio-Christian
Related terms: Christianity
Christianize
Christian Malford
Christlike
Christological
cretin
Catholic
fundamentalist
Jew
messiah
Mormon
Muslim
New Testament
Old Testament
Protestant