Etymology

atheist

a·the·ist
A1T1H4E1I1S1T1

Today it means: A person who does not believe in deities or gods. Full definition →

English theist ← Ancient Greek θεός (theós) ← Proto-Hellenic *tʰehós
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*né
  2. Proto-Indo-European*n̥-
  3. Proto-Hellenic*ə-
  4. Ancient Greekἀ- (a-)
  5. Englisha-
  6. Proto-Indo-European*dʰeh₁-
  7. Proto-Indo-European*dʰéh₁s
  8. Proto-Indo-European*dʰh₁sós
  9. Proto-Hellenic*tʰehós
  10. Ancient Greekθεός (theós)
  11. Englishtheist
  12. English todayatheist

From Middle French athéiste (athée + -iste), from Latin atheos, from Ancient Greek ἄθεος (átheos, “godless, without god”), from ἀ- (a-, “without”) + θεός (theós, “god”).

Words from the same roots

Ancient Greekἄθεος all →

atheismatheous

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.