Sola
/ˈsoʊlə/noun
A Latin feminine form meaning “alone,” “only,” or “by oneself,” used in English mainly in phrases such as “sola scriptura.”
Did you know?In “sola scriptura,” the Latin phrase means “by scripture alone,” making a single word the center of a centuries-old theological revolution.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*solh₂wos
“Alone or whole by oneself; a proposed ancestral form”
Classical Latin
Latin
solus
“Alone, solitary, only”
Classical Latin
Latin
sola
“Feminine form of solus: alone or only”
16th Century
Ecclesiastical Latin
sola scriptura
“By scripture alone”
Modern English
English
sola
“A Latin loanword retained chiefly in religious and scholarly phrases”