828: pastoral Mar 15, 2017

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Someone unfamiliar with the word, 'pastoral' might very well still be confused after looking in a dictionary as the two definitions are: "relating to country-life" and "concerning the giving of spiritual guidance in the Christian Church". Originally, going back to the Latin root, the word 'pastoralis' which came from 'pastor' meant ‘relating to a shepherd’ and could refer to his flock but also nature in general. The verb from which this derives, 'pascere' meant 'feed' and featured in the quite famous line in Psalm 23, "Dominus pascit me" often translated as "The Lord is my shepherd". A literal translation, however, would be "The Lord feeds me" as 'pascit is a verb and 'me' is not a possessive pronoun. Nevertheless, the connotation of 'pascere' with 'leading' persisted in ecclesiastical Latin giving English the word the religious leader, 'pastor' and hence, 'pastoral'.

For two more examples of how The Church has change the meaning of words over time: check these out these on heathen and heaven. 

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