Cyrillic
1842, in reference to the alphabet adopted by Slavic people belonging to the Eastern Church, from St. Cyril, 9c. apostle of the Slavs, who supposedly invented it. The alphabet replaced earlier Glagolitic. The name Cyril is Late Latin Cyrillus, from Greek Kyrillos, literally "
It is believed to have superseded the Glagolitic as being easier both for the copyist to write and for the foreigner to acquire. Some of its signs are modified from the Glagolitic, but those which Greek and Slavic have in common are taken from the Greek. It was brought into general use by St. Cyril's pupil, Clement, first bishop of Bulgaria. The Russian alphabet is a slight modification of it. [Century Dictionary]
Entries linking to cyrillic
Old English cirice, circe "
This is probably [see extensive note in OED] borrowed via an unrecorded Gothic word from Greek kyriake (oikia), kyriakon doma "
Greek kyriakon (adj.) "
The word also was picked up by the Slavic tongues, probably via Germanic (Old Church Slavonic criky, Russian cerkov). Finnish kirkko, Estonian kirrik are from Scandinavian. Romance and Celtic languages use variants of Latin ecclesia (such as French église, 11c.).
Phonetic spelling from c. 1200, established by 16c. For vowel evolution, see bury. After the Reformation, church was used for any particular Christian denomination agreeing on doctrine and forms of worship.
As an adjective, "
updated on June 15, 2018