atheism (English)

Where does "atheism" come from?

The English noun 'atheism' traces back to sixteenth century Middle French 'athéisme'[1]. This French term ultimately stems from the Ancient Greek adjective 'ἄθεος' meaning 'godless'[1]. That Greek word is a combination of the prefix 'ἀ-' meaning 'without' and the noun 'θεός' meaning 'deity' or 'god'[3]. The Ancient Greek 'θεός' developed from the Proto-Hellenic '*tʰehós', which itself originates from Proto-Indo-European roots meaning 'to do, to put, to place'[2][5]. English first attested the word in 1587[1].

Open questions

• The early forms and roots leading to Ancient Greek θεός, such as Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- and *dʰéh₁s, are reconstructed forms. [2] [4] [5]

Full etymology tree

• atheism (English), 'A non-belief in deities.'
  • borrowed athéisme (Middle French)
    • derived athée (Middle French)
      • borrowed ἄθεος (átheos) (Ancient Greek), 'without gods'
        • 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 θεός (theós) (Ancient Greek), 'divine (used only in comparative: θεώτερος (theṓteros))'
          • inherited *tʰehós (Proto-Hellenic), 'god, deity'
            • inherited *dʰéh₁s (Proto-Indo-European), 'god, godhead, deity'
              • derived *dʰeh₁- (Proto-Indo-European), 'to do'
              • suffix *-s (Proto-Indo-European), 'Derives feminine mobile-accented root nouns from roots.'
    • suffix -isme (Middle French)

Ancestors

• ἀ- (Ancient Greek)
• θεός (Ancient Greek)
• ἄθεος (Ancient Greek)

Descendants and derived words

• antiatheism (English)
• antiatheism (English)
• Atheism Plus (English)
• faitheism (English)
• hard atheism (English)
• new atheism (English)
• panatheism (English)
• pseudo-atheism (English)
• soft atheism (English)

Sources

1. atheism (English) - Wiktionary
2. θεός (theós) (Ancient Greek) - Wiktionary
3. ἄθεος (átheos) (Ancient Greek) - Wiktionary
4. dʰéh₁s (Proto-Indo-European) - Wiktionary
5. tʰehós (Proto-Hellenic) - Wiktionary

Updated August 2026

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