Cirice

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An archaic word for a church, the building where Christians worship, used in Old and Middle English texts
2. A medieval English term meaning a church or a Christian place of worship, as found in older manuscripts
3. Old English and Middle English form meaning a church, the house of worship or the body of believers

Etymology: In Old English, "cirice" was the ordinary word for a Christian house of worship, and it came from the Greek "kyriakon," meaning "the Lord's (house)," built from "kyrios," "lord." Germanic speakers borrowed the Greek term early, and it reached England by the time the Old English texts were written, probably through Christian missionaries and Latin-speaking clergy. The word then changed in sound over the centuries. The hard "k" softened to "ch," and by the Middle English period the pronunciation had moved toward the modern "church." Scots kept a close relative, "kirk," which comes from the same Old Norse and Old English source. "Church" and "kirk" are therefore doublets, two English words descended from one Greek original.