agnostic (English)

Where does "agnostic" come from?

The English adjective 'agnostic' was coined in 1870 by Thomas Henry Huxley[1]. The word was formed either from the Ancient Greek 'ágnωστος', meaning 'ignorant, not knowing', or as a combination of 'a-' meaning 'not' and 'Gnostic'[1]. These elements ultimately trace back to the Proto-Indo-European root '*ǵneh₃-', meaning 'to know', which also underlies the ancient Greek verb 'gignṓskō'[1][5].

Full etymology tree

agnostic (English), 'Doubtful or uncertain about the existence or demonstrability of God or other deity.'
- derived ἄγνωστος (ágnōstos) (Ancient Greek), 'unknown, unheard of, forgotten'
  - compound ἀ- (a-) (Ancient Greek), 'The alpha privativum, used to make words that have a sense opposite to the word (or stem) to which the prefix is attached. It is also known as privative a and alpha privative; a-, ab-, an-, anti-, contra-, de-, dis-, ex-, il-, im-, in-, ob-, ne-, non-, not, un-'
  - compound γιγνώσκω (gignṓskō) (Ancient Greek), 'to be aware of; to perceive, observe, know, learn'
    - inherited *gignṓskō (Proto-Hellenic)
      - inherited *ǵiǵneh₃- (Proto-Indo-European)
- derived Gnostic (English), 'Of, or relating to, intellectual or spiritual knowledge'
- derived a- (English), 'Not, without, opposite of.'

Ancestors

*ǵneh₃- (Proto-Indo-European)
ἄγνωστος (Ancient Greek)
Gnostic (English)
ἀ- (Ancient Greek)

Descendants and derived words

agnostically (English)
agnosticize (English)
anti-agnostic (English)
anti-agnostic (English)
antiagnostic (English)
antiagnostic (English)
language-agnostic (English)
location-agnostic (English)
nonagnostic (English)
vendor agnostic (English)
vendor-agnostic (English)
vendor-agnostic (English)

Sources

Updated September 2026

More words starting with A

Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris