Etymology

Bartholomew

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Today it means: An Apostle, identified with Nathanael. (biblical character) Full definition →

Latin Bartholomaeus ← Ancient Greek Βαρθολομαῖος ← Aramaic בר תלמי
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The story

  1. Aramaic · derived fromבר תלמי“son of Talmai; son of Ptolemy”
  2. Ancient Greek · derived fromΒαρθολομαῖος
  3. Latin · borrowed fromBartholomaeus
  4. English todayBartholomew

From Latin Bartholomaeus, from Ancient Greek Βαρθολομαῖος (Bartholomaîos), from Aramaic בר תלמי (bar tolmai, “son of Talmai; son of Ptolemy”), from בר (bar, “son”) and תלמי (tolmai, “Talmai; Ptolemy”). It has long been unclear whether the Apostle's father was named after the biblical Talmai, king of Geshur, or one of the Greek Ptolemies, as the two originally unrelated names were conflated in Jewish Aramaic. The ending -ew underwent a similar evolution to that seen in Hebrew (ultimately from Latin Hebraeus) and Jew (from Latin Iudaeus, with loss of the -ud-). The name's pronunciation was changed to match the spelling; contrast French Barthélemy from the same source.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.