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Origin and history of edification

edification(n.)

mid-14c., edificacioun, in religious use, "a building up of the soul, act of instructing, doctrine," from Old French edificacion "a building, construction; edification, good example," and directly from Latin aedificationem (nominative aedificatio) "construction, the process of building; a building, an edifice," in Late Latin "spiritual improvement," from past participle stem of aedificare "to build" (see edifice).

The religious sense is from its use as translation of Greek oikodomē in I Corinthians xiv. The meaning "mental improvement" is attested by 1650s. The literal sense of "construction, building, action of constructing" (c. 1400) is rare in English. Middle English bilding sometimes was used in religious writing to translate Latin aedificatio.

edification

also from mid-14c.

Entries linking to edification

edifice(n.)

"a building, structure," late 14c., from Old French edifice "building" (12c.), from Latin aedificium "building," from aedificare "to erect a building," from aedis, variant of aedes "temple, sanctuary," usually a single edifice without partitions, also, in the plural, "dwelling house, building," originally "a place with a hearth." The second element is combining form of facere "to make, to do" (from PIE root *dhe- "to set, put").

Aedis/aedes is reconstructed to be from PIE *eidh- "to burn, burning" (source also of Sanskrit inddhe "burst into flames;" Avestan aesma- "firewood;" Greek aithein "to burn," aithos "fire;" Latin aestas "summer," aestus "heat;" Lithuanian iesmė "firewood;" Old Irish aed "fire," Welsh aidd "heat, zeal;" Old English ād, Old High German eit "funeral pile," Old Norse eisa "burning coals"), which is perhaps related to the root *as- "to burn, glow."

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