Origin and history of disciple

disciple(n.)

Old English discipul (fem. discipula), "one who follows another for the purpose of learning," especially "the personal followers of Jesus Christ during his life, the twelve Apostles chosen or called by him to be his immediate associates," a Biblical borrowing from Latin discipulus "pupil, student, follower," which is of uncertain origin.

In OED (1989) and Watkins it is said to be from discere "to learn," from a reduplicated form of the PIE root *dek- "to take, accept." But according to Barnhart and Klein, it is from a lost compound *discipere "to grasp intellectually, analyze thoroughly," from dis- "apart" (see dis-) + capere "to take, take hold of," from PIE root *kap- "to grasp." De Vaan finds the ending -pulus "difficult to explain" in the former theory and finds the latter theory "semantically not compelling."

It was not common in Old English, where the usual word was leorningcniht, and in some cases þegn (see thane). The pre-Christian Latin sense of "scholar, pupil, student" is rare in English. Meaning "one who follows or is influenced by the doctrine or example of another" is from c. 1300.

Entries linking to disciple

thane(n.)

Middle English thein, from Old English þegn "military follower, one who holds lands in exchange for military service," also "vassal, retainer, attendant," from Proto-Germanic *thegnas (source also of Old Saxon thegan "(free) follower, warrior; boy, youngling," Old Norse þegn "thane, freeman," Old High German thegan, German Degen "thane, warrior, hero").

This is reconstructed to be from PIE *tek-no- (source also of Sanskrit takman "descendant, child," Greek teknon "child; young animal, shoot"), from root *tek- "to beget, give birth to" (source also of Greek tekos "child, the young of animals," tokos "childbirth, offspring, produce of money, interest"). However, Beekes writes that the identification of the Greek and Germanic words is "not without problems" caused by phonetics.

Also used in Old English for "disciple of Christ." The specific sense of "man who ranks between an earl and a freeman" is late 15c.

The modern spelling is from Scottish, where early 13c. it came to mean "chief of a clan, king's baron," and it has predominated in English probably due to the influence of "Macbeth;" normal orthographic changes from Old English ðegn would have produced Modern English *thain. Some historians now use thegn to distinguish Anglo-Saxon thanes from Scottish thanes.

discipleship(n.)

"state or condition of being a follower of another in doctrines and precepts," 1540s, from disciple + -ship. Old English had discipulhad, Middle English disciplehood.