Secularity
/ˌsɛkjʊˈlærɪti/noun
The state of being separate from religion or spiritual authority; nonreligious character.
Did you know?Secularity ultimately comes from Latin saeculum, meaning an “age” or “generation,” so its root meaning is tied to time, mortality, and the changing world rather than to holiness itself.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*sēi-
“to bind together; to follow in sequence”
Latin
Latin
saeculum
“an age, generation, lifetime; the spirit of an age”
Late Latin
Latin
saecularis
“of an age; worldly, not ecclesiastical”
Old French
Old French
seculer
“worldly, temporal, not religious”
Middle English
English
seculer
“worldly; belonging to the present world rather than the Church”
Modern English
English
secularity
“the quality or condition of being secular”