Prechynge

Part of speech: noun, verb

Definitions

1. The act of publicly delivering a sermon or religious address to a congregation, as in the archaic spelling of preaching
2. An archaic term for the act of speaking publicly on religious matters, especially delivering a sermon to a gathering of believers
3. Old spelling for the practice of proclaiming religious teaching aloud, usually in the form of a sermon given to listeners

Etymology: "Prechynge" is a Middle English spelling of "preaching," the verbal noun from "preach." Medieval scribes spelled the sound "ch" and wrote the ending "-ynge" in a way that varied from text to text, so the same form appears in many different spellings. The verb came into English from Old French "prechier," which descended from Latin "praedicare." In Latin, that verb meant simply to proclaim or declare publicly, without any religious sense. It was built from "prae," meaning "before" or "publicly," and "dicare," meaning "make known." The religious meaning developed later, as Christian teachers took up the public-proclamation sense for their own announcements.