homily

The earliest form is Greek homilia, meaning "conversation," "company," or "discourse." It comes from homilos, an assembled crowd, and belongs to the social world of people being together in speech. In classical Greek the word was not yet tied to sermons. It named the act and atmosphere of speaking among others.

Early Christians gave homilia a new setting between the 3rd and 5th centuries CE. Greek preachers used it for familiar spoken exposition of scripture before a congregation. Late Latin borrowed it as homilia, and the church sense became dominant. The old note of conversation never vanished completely, even in formal preaching.

From church Latin the word passed into Old French as omelie or homelie and then into English by the late Old English and Middle English periods. English religious prose used homily for a sermon, especially one that explained doctrine plainly. The title became famous in the official Books of Homilies issued in England in 1547 and 1563. That history fixed the word in Protestant as well as older church settings.

Modern English keeps homily for a sermon or moral talk, often one that sounds earnest and instructive. It can be neutral in liturgical use and faintly critical in everyday speech. The shift is striking: a word for conversation became a word for admonition. Yet both senses share one thing, speech meant for a gathered audience.