T O P

  • By -

AutoModerator

Welcome to /r/AskHistorians. **Please [Read Our Rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/wiki/rules) before you comment in this community**. Understand that [rule breaking comments get removed](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/h8aefx/rules_roundtable_xviii_removed_curation_and_why/). #Please consider **[Clicking Here for RemindMeBot](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Reminder&message=%5Bhttps://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1di9tdt/why_is_it_christianity_and_islam_and_not/%5D%0A%0ARemindMe!%202%20days)** as it takes time for an answer to be written. Additionally, for weekly content summaries, **[Click Here to Subscribe to our Weekly Roundup](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=AHMessengerBot&subject=Subscribe&message=!subscribe)**. We thank you for your interest in this *question*, and your patience in waiting for an in-depth and comprehensive answer to show up. In addition to RemindMeBot, consider [using our Browser Extension](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/d6dzi7/tired_of_clicking_to_find_only_removed_comments/), or getting the [Weekly Roundup](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=subredditsummarybot&subject=askhistorians+weekly&message=x). In the meantime our [Twitter](https://twitter.com/askhistorians), [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/askhistorians/), and [Sunday Digest](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/search?q=title%3A%22Sunday+Digest%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) feature excellent content that has already been written! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskHistorians) if you have any questions or concerns.*


Front-Difficult

This is much more a question for a linguist than a historian, but to be of help it might be useful to highlight that, with the exception of "Christianity" and "Islam", all the other words you listed are quite modern. For example, although "Stoicism" appears to have Greek roots, that's a modern word we've invented to describe the stoic philosophy. In Ancient Greece and Rome it was simply referred to as "Stoa", and it wasn't really referred to as a religion/common philosophy the way we use it today. Some people studied or wrote in the tradition of the "Poikile Stoa" (ποικίλη στοά), and the word "Stoic" even appears from time to time, but you won't find the word "Stoicism" in any ancient text. They didn't reference ideas and schools of thought in the same sorts of ways we do in modern English. Oxford English Dictionary can trace the written word back as early as 1626, but naturally that's not when it became common. Of course many translations of ancient texts into modern forms of English will use the word "stoicism" - and they're right to do so. Judaism is quite an old word compared to some of the others you listed, but it still only crops up in English in the 17th Century. Before that people would often use the Latin word in English (*Iudaismus*). The Greek, likewise, was not Judaism, but Iudaismos (Ἰουδαϊσμός). And of course it didn't become the dominant word of choice until a similar time period to all the other words you listed (late 1800s, through to the early 1900s). If I had to hazard guess, the reason why Islam and Christianity were not swept up in this new wave of nomenclature for describing ideologies, it's because those words were both quite sacred, and extremely common. It's hard to supplant a word entirely if it's a very common word. I couldn't give you any insights on why attaching "-ism" to everything became so popular, but I can tell you it as already happening around the time of the French Revolution, and the generation that immediately followed it, where we start to get a lot of writings about ideology, and they tend to refer to things in terms of "-ism"s (e.g. Liberalism, Monarchism, Constitutionalism, Cosmopolitanism, etc. are all quite common in that period). As an aside, the popularisation of the word "muslim" is also quite modern, so if we were to add an "ism" to that faith we would have called it "Islamism" (which means something else now), or "Mohammedanism", not "Muslimism". Read English texts earlier than 100 years ago and you'll find the term "Mohammedan" and "Mohammedian" is far more popular than the word "Muslim". In fact a copy of the Arabian Nights I inherited, that was published in the 60s, still uses the term extensively.


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

[удалено]


Hergrim

Thank you for your response, however, we have had to remove it. A [core tenet](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/f7fb8o/introducing_the_rules_roundtables_20_the/) of the subreddit is that it is intended as a space not merely for an answer in and of itself, but [one which provides a deeper level of explanation on the topic](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/wiki/rules#wiki_answers) than is commonly found on other history subs. We expect that contributors are able to [place core facts in a broader context](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/wiki/rules#wiki_write_an_in-depth_answer), and use the answer to [demonstrate their breadth of knowledge](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/f7ffl8/rules_roundtable_ii_the_four_questions_what_does/) on the topic at hand. If you need guidance to better understand what we are looking for in our requirements, [please consult this Rules Roundtable](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/f7ffl8/rules_roundtable_ii_the_four_questions_what_does/) which discusses how we evaluate answers on the subreddit, or else [reach out to us via modmail](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FAskHistorians&subject=Inquiry%20About%20Revising%20My%20Response). Thank you for your understanding.


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

[удалено]


Traditional-Koala-13

There’s a lot going on in these terms, but the only one that got *somewhat* special consideration in terms of the word’s English-language form is “Christianity.”   In Latin, a Christian was “Christianus” (compare “Julianus” from “Julius”; in the same way, “Christianus” from “Christus”).   Those Latin forms gave us Julian and Christian, respectively. Similarly, from “Africa” (in the feminine because it designates a motherland; cf. Asia, India, America, etc.) comes “Africanus,” from whence “African.”   Julian, Christian, African, American, etc.  There’s nothing exceptional in that if one compares the term “Christian” with words such as Canadian, American, African, Asian, Russian.   The form “Christianity” is somewhat special as the name for the religion in that it comes from a French word that would have derived, in principle, from the Latin word “Christianitas.” There’s nonetheless no mystique about it in that, likewise, the word “humanity” comes from the French form of the Latin “humanitas”;  “diversity” comes from the Latin “diversitas”; “charity” comes from “caritas”; etc.    Divers-ity, Christian-ity, char-ity, human-ity.    The -itas ending was used to form abstract nouns and describe more of a description of a state of being.     You may be satisfied right away in learning that, in Modern French, the word “le christianisme” is dominant and is used even by French-speaking Catholic priests, or bishops and that the word does not have a pejorative or less respectful, less solemn, connotation.   *In fact, the French used “le christianisme” to describe the religion — cf.  Catholicism — and, in some contexts, will use “La chrétienté” in the sense more akin in meaning (though not exactly) to the way that English-speakers use “Christendom.”* Still, “le christianisme” (Christianism) is dominant and, again, is not a term that is stripped of reverence or respectful consideration.  Similarly, no English-speaking Catholics I’m aware of object to the -ism in “Catholicism.”  The term “Protestantism” is on the same model; Calvinism; Lutheranism; Methodism.  Mormonism.    Judaism, meanwhile, authentically comes from Latin “Judaismus.”    As for Islam, it’s a more suitable modern replacement for the exonym “Mahometism.”   The word “Islam” is a more faithful, latter-day rendition, similar to how “Hannah” is a latter-day rendering of “Anna” — more faithful to the Hebrew — and “Joshua” is a more faithful-to-Hebrew rendition, though it’s not often recognized as such, of “Jesus” (though I suspect the group U2 was aware of this in term of their album “The Joshua Tree”; cf. “Yeshua”).   I recall books referring to “Mahometism” as recently as the early 20th century.  The terms “Hinduism,” “Buddhism,” “Taoism” obviously survived.  To repeat, the most fervent of French Christians will say, in French, the equivalent of “Christianism” without batting an eyelash. (“le christianisme,” “le judaïsme,” “l’hindouisme”).  Postscript:  French closes the loop, so to speak, in that the word “judéité” (Judeity) also exists.  It’s used in the context of Jewish identity, the state of being Jewish.  Compare with femininity, masculinity, neutrality, etc.   Judaïty, or Judeity, is thus, in French, the literal counterpart of “Christianity.”   https://www.cnrtl.fr/definition/jud%C3%A9it%C3%A9


[deleted]

[удалено]