Eucharistic

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Relating to or involving the Christian sacrament of communion, in which bread and wine are consecrated and consumed in remembrance of Christ's last supper
2. Pertaining to the sacred Christian ritual of consecrating and consuming bread and wine as a commemoration of Christ's final meal before his crucifixion
3. Of or concerning the religious practice in which blessed bread and wine are distributed among believers to honor Christ's sacrificial death

Etymology: Eucharist comes from Greek "eucharistia," meaning "thanksgiving," built from "eu" (well, good) and "charis" (grace, favour). Early Christian writers used the Greek term for the Lord's Supper, and the Christian sense of the word was established long before the Greek word itself meant anything else in everyday life. The adjective "eucharistic" is simply the noun with the suffix "-ic" added, which turns it into a description of anything relating to that rite. The suffix has a longer ancestry than the Greek noun. "-ic" passed from Latin "-icus" through Middle English "-ik," and it is the same ending found in words like "public" and "music." Its Proto-Indo-European roots are far older than Christianity, so the word as a whole is a plain combination of an ancient Greek noun and a common English adjective-forming ending.

Synonyms: sacramental, holy, religious