"pertaining to Catalonia," also as a noun, "person from Catalonia," late 15c., from the indigenous name, which is said to be of Celtic origin and probably mean "chiefs of battle." But as the name is not attested before 11c., it perhaps is a Medieval Latin form of *Gothlandia "land of the Goths." As a noun meaning "a Catalan," Middle English used Cateloner (mid-14c.), Catellain (early 15c., from French). As a language name in English by 1792.
also Keltic, 1650s, in archaeology and history, "pertaining to the (ancient) Celts," from French Celtique or Latin Celticus "pertaining to the Celts" (see Celt). In reference to the language group including Irish, Gaelic, Welsh, Breton, etc., from 1707. Of modern peoples or their other qualities, by mid-19c. The Boston basketball team was founded 1946. Celtic twilight is from Yeats's name for his collection of adapted Irish folk tales (1893).
1530s, member of an early Christian sect named for the Gnostic Marcion of Sinope (c. 140), who denied any connection between the Old Testament and the New. They contrasted the barbaric and incompetent creator, who favored bandits and killers, with the "higher god" of Christ. They also emphasized virginity and rejection of marriage, and they allowed women to minister. They flourished, especially in the East, until late 4c. The form Marcionist is attested from mid-15c.
masc. proper name, popular in England and Scotland by mid-12c. (Pope Gregory I sent the men who converted the English to Christianity), nativization of Late Latin Gregorius, literally "wakeful" (equivalent to Latin Vigilantius), from Greek gregorios, a derivative of gregoros "to be watchful," from PIE root *ger- (2) "to be awake" (source also of Sanskrit jagarti "he is awake," Avestan agarayeiti "wakes up, rouses"). At times confused with Latin gregarius (see gregarious).
mid-15c., Pelagien, "adherent of the teaching of the heretic Pelagius;" also as an adjective; from Medieval Latin Pelagianus, from Pelagius, Latinized form of the name of the 4c. British monk who denied the doctrine of original sin. Combated by Augustine, condemned by Pope Zosimus in 418 C.E. His name in Welsh was said to have been Morgan, literally "sea-dweller" (hence his Church name, from Greek pelagos "sea;" see pelagic). Related: Pelagianism.
fem. proper name, originally (late 14c.), a name of Artemis as the goddess of the moon, also the moon itself (mid-15c.); from Latin Phoebe, from Greek Phoebē, from phoibos "bright, pure," a word of unknown origin. The fem. form of Phoebus, an epithet of Apollo as sun-god. Phoebe, a notable figure in the early Church, is mentioned in Romans 16:1-2. Most popular as a given name for girls born in the U.S. in the 1880s and 2010s.
mid-14c., representing the Greek rendition of Akkadian Bab-ilani "the gate of the gods," from bab "gate" + ilani, plural of ilu "god" (compare Babel). The Old Persian form, Babiru-, shows characteristic transformation of -l- to -r- in words assimilated from Semitic. Formerly also applied by Protestants to the Church in Rome, from the woman "arrayed in purple and scarlet" in Revelation xvii.5 ("And upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth").
