Pentecost

The story

1. Old French and Middle English · derived fromPentecost
2. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*pénkʷe“five; hand”
3. Proto-Hellenic · derived from*penkʷēkontstós
4. Ancient Greek · derived fromπεντηκοστή“fiftieth”
5. Koine Greek · derived fromπεντηκοστή“Christian feast of Pentecost; Jewish festival of Pentecost”
6. Ecclesiastical Latin · derived fromPentēcostē“Christian feast of Pentecost; Jewish festival of Pentecost”
7. Old French · derived frompentecoste“Christian feast of Pentecost; Jewish festival of Pentecost”
8. Middle French · derived frompentecoste
9. Anglo-Norman · derived frompentecoste
10. Old English · inherited fromPentecosten
11. Middle English · inherited fromPentecoste“feast of the descent of the Holy Spirit, Pentecost; season of Pentecost, Whitsuntide; Jewish festival celebrating giving of the law to Moses”
12. English todayPentecost

From Middle English Pentecoste (“feast of the descent of the Holy Spirit, Pentecost; season of Pentecost, Whitsuntide; Jewish festival celebrating giving of the law to Moses”), from Old English Pentecosten, also influenced by Anglo-Norman pentecoste, Middle French pentecoste, and Old French pentecoste (“Christian feast of Pentecost; Jewish festival of Pentecost”) (modern French Pentecôte). Both the Old English and Old French words are derived from Ecclesiastical Latin Pentēcostē (“Christian feast of Pentecost; Jewish festival of Pentecost”), from Koine Greek πεντηκοστή (pentēkostḗ, “Christian feast of Pentecost; Jewish festival of Pentecost”), from Ancient Greek πεντηκοστή (pentēkostḗ, “fiftieth”), a noun use of the feminine form of πεντηκοστὸς (pentēkostòs, “fiftieth”, adjective), short for πεντηκοστὸς ἡμέρα (pentēkostòs hēméra, “fiftieth day”) (referring to the Jewish festival falling on the fiftieth day after the second day of the Passover), used in the Bible to translate Hebrew שָׁבוּעוֹת (shāvū'ót, “weeks”). Πεντηκοστὸς (Pentēkostòs) is derived from Proto-Hellenic *penkʷēkontstós, from *pénkʷe (“five”) (from Proto-Indo-European *pénkʷe (“five; hand”)) + *-kontstós (suffix forming ordinal numbers from twentieth to ninetieth) (whence Boeotian Greek ‑καστός (‑kastós); from Proto-Indo-European *déḱm̥ (“ten”)). The surname is from Old French and Middle English Pentecost, a personal name perhaps given to one born on Pentecost; also an altered form of Pankhurst. Compare Pancoast. Compare also Pinkster, a cognate borrowed from Dutch sometimes used regionally or archaically.

Words from the same roots