Pentecost

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A Christian festival celebrated fifty days after Easter, commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles
2. Marked by the receiving of the Holy Spirit, this feast is observed in honor of the establishment of the Church
3. This significant occasion in Christianity celebrates the gift of the Spirit, empowering believers and marking the Church's birth

Etymology: Pentecost is a Greek number word in disguise. The Greek "pentēkostē" meant "fiftieth," shortened from "pentēkostos hēmera," the fiftieth day. The count ran from the second day of Passover, and the Greek translators of the Hebrew Bible used the term for the Jewish festival of Shavuot, which falls fifty days after that point. Its root is "pente," five, the same element found in "pentagon" and "pentathlon," though here it stands for fifty. The word passed into Old English as "Pentecosten" and into Old French as "pentecoste," and from these it reached Middle English as "Pentecoste." Early uses covered both the Christian feast commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles and the Jewish festival of the giving of the law to Moses, which shows how closely the two calendars were tied. In Christian usage the word eventually became a name for the whole season following the feast, and in English it was also known as Whitsuntide. A cognate, "pinkster," survives in Dutch-influenced American usage.