Etymology

Vatican

V4A1T1I1C3A1N1

Today it means: Relating to the Vatican City state. Full definition →

Latin Vātī̆cānus
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The story

  1. Latin · learned borrowing fromVātī̆cānus“Vatican Hill”
  2. English todayVatican

Learned borrowing from Latin Vātī̆cānus (“Vatican Hill”), further etymology unknown. The connection to vāticinārī (“to prophesy, oracle”) is folk-etymological.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.