- proselyte
- late 14c., from O.Fr. proselite (13c.), from L.L. proselytus (c.200), from Gk. proselytos "convert (to Judaism), stranger, one who has come over," lit. "having arrived," from second aorist stem of proserkhesthai, from proti "toward" + root of eleusesthai "to be going to come;" related to ne-elys "new-comer." Originally in English "a Gentile converted to Judaism" (late 14c.).