Predicaciun

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The delivery of a religious sermon or address to an audience, especially in the archaic spelling used in older English texts
2. An archaic term for preaching, meaning the act of proclaiming religious teaching through a sermon to a congregation
3. Old-fashioned name for the act of preaching, where a speaker expounds religious doctrine to listeners in a church setting

Etymology: "Predicaciun" is a Middle English spelling of "predication," the act of preaching, and it came into English from Old French "predication," which in turn came from Latin "praedicatio," meaning a proclamation or public declaration. The Latin noun is built from "praedicare," "to proclaim," which combines "prae," "before" or "publicly," with "dicare," "to make known" or "to declare." The word's English record dates to the 1300s, when it was used almost exclusively for the sermons of the church and the preaching of scripture. The Middle English spelling "-ciun" reflects the Anglo-Norman and Old French pronunciation of the ending, which was closer to "-syoon" than the modern "-shun." Over time the spelling and pronunciation settled into the form "predication," and the word's sense narrowed in modern English, so that it now refers more generally to the act of asserting something, especially in logic, while religious preaching has largely fallen out of use.