_Etymology of Church_ (Vol. v., p. 79.).--Gieseler, in his _Lehrbuch der
Kirchengeschichte_, vol. i., p. 1. ed. 4., says that the word _kirche_
(and consequently _church_) is most probably derived from τὸ
κυριακόν. In support of this opinion, he quotes Walafrid Strabo, who
wrote about A.D. 840:
"Si autem quæritur qua occasione ad vos vestigia hæc Græcitatis
advenerint, dicendum--præcipue a Gothis, cum eo tempore quo ad
fidem Christianam, licet non recto itinere [_i.e._ by means of
Arianism], perducti sunt, in Græcorum provinciis commorantes,
nostrum, _i.e._ theotiscum, sermonem habuerint."
He adds that Ulphilas is evidence for the general adoption of Greek
ecclesiastical terms by the Goths; and he confirms the idea of a Greek
derivation by the remark that derivatives of κυριακόν occur,
not only in the Teutonic languages, but in those of the Sclavonic
nations, whose conversion proceeded from Greece. Thus, the Bohemian
word is _cyrkew_, the Russian _zerkow_, the Polish _cerkiew_. The use of
derivatives of _ecclesia_ (which I would remind MR. STEPHENS is also
originally Greek) in the Roman languages, no doubt arises from the
circumstance that that word had been adopted into Latin, whereas the
other had not.