Re: Religion-Names in Conlangs. Or At Least in Mine. :)

Tom Wier <artabanos@...> wrote:

>J. Barefoot wrote:
>
>> BTW, the term "Christian" was originally a bit of military
terminology,
>> something like "Christ's squadron" or "legion," in the same vein as
the
>> Roman legions naming themselves after Roman gods. The new converts
>> needed a way to distinguish themselves from the "paganoi," literaly
the
>> "civilians".
>
>Not from what I have read.  Dunno for sure about the original
>military connotations of "Christianus", but "paganus" in Latin
>originally meant just a person out in the "rus", a country bumpkin
>as it were.  It was applied during the late Empire, when most of
>the city dwellers were Christians, and only the people out in the
>wilds still practiced the old ways.
Maybe. My understanding was that they are just two senses of the word,
"civilians" when soldiers said it and "hicks" to everyone else. But when
they were first called Christians,I believe around the middle of the
first cent., it was a military term. At least that's what my crazy Latin
teacher told us.

J. Barefoot


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