Pericopae

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A set of scriptural excerpts often used in religious readings or liturgical contexts
2. A collection of short passages selected from a larger text, particularly in biblical studies
3. Individual sections or verses from religious texts that are curated for specific teaching or preaching purposes

Etymology: "Pericopae" is the plural of "pericope," a term that comes from the Greek for a cutting-out: the prefix "peri-" means "around" or "across," and "kopē" comes from "kóptō," "I cut." A Greek "perikopē" was simply a section or passage cut out of a larger text, and the sense of separating a portion from a whole is what the word keeps today. It reached English through Late Latin as "pericope," where it kept the same literal idea of a marked-off passage. The word's use in churches reflects that origin: a pericope is a selected extract that is read aloud on its own, lifted from the larger book it belongs to.