Etymology

charity

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Today it means: An organization, the objective of which is to carry out a charitable purpose. Full definition →

Middle English charite ← Old French charité ← Latin cāritātem
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charity · noun1

  1. Proto-Indo-European*keh₂-
  2. Proto-Italic*kāros
  3. Latincārus
  4. Latincāritātem
  5. Old Frenchcharité
  6. Middle Englishcharite
  7. English todaycharity

From Middle English charite, from Old French charité, cherte, chariteit, cariteit, from Latin cāritās. * The Tyndale Bible uses native English love instead.

Charity · proper noun2

From charity in the Biblical sense of Christian love; first used by Puritans. In early Christian tradition, Faith, Hope and Charity were the martyred daughters of Saint Sophia. The names, taken from 1 Corinthians 13:13 ("And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity") have been translated and used in many languages. The name of the sura (chapter) is one of several translations of the original Arabic.

Words from the same roots

Latincāritās all →

caritative

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.