Palm Sunday
/ˌpɑːm ˈsʌn.deɪ/noun
The Sunday before Easter, commemorating Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem when crowds are said to have greeted him with palm branches.
Did you know?The palm branch was an ancient Mediterranean symbol of victory and triumph long before Christianity adopted it into the story of Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*sóh₂wl̥
“The sun, the radiant celestial body”
Ancient Greek
Greek
phoinīx
“Date palm; also associated with the palm’s reddish color and with the Phoenicians”
Classical Latin
Latin
palma
“Palm of the hand; palm tree or palm branch, linked by the hand-like shape of its leaves”
4th Century
Latin
Dominica in palmis
“The Lord’s Day in the palms; an early Christian name for the observance”
Old English
Old English
sunnandæg
“Sun’s day, the day named for the sun”
12th–13th Century
Middle English
palmesunday
“The Sunday before Easter associated with palm branches”
Modern English
English
Palm Sunday
“The Christian feast commemorating Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem”