Theologue

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An individual who engages in the academic study or teaching of religious beliefs and doctrines
2. Someone devoted to the scholarly examination of the nature of God and religious truth
3. A scholar or expert focused on understanding religious concepts and sacred writings

Etymology: "Theologue" is a word of Greek parts that English borrowed through Latin. Its Greek source, "theológos," was built from "theos," meaning "god," and "-logos," from the root "legein," meaning "to speak" or "to gather words." A "theológos" was someone who spoke about the gods, and the word was applied in antiquity to poets and writers who told stories about divine beings, not just to later Christian thinkers. The Latin form "theologus" carried the word into the scholarly vocabulary of medieval Europe, where it came to mean a specialist in sacred learning. English took the term directly from Latin, so "theologue" follows the same pattern as "theologian," which entered English through Old French, while "theologue" reached it by a more direct route. The word is now rare in English. Its "-logue" ending matches other borrowed Greek forms such as "dialogue" and "prologue," which is why it can look like a more ordinary word than it is.

Synonyms: theologian, religious scholar, clergyman, minister, priest