PAGAN

A term now used in a religious sense to designate a person who is not a Christian, Jew, or Muslim. How the Latin word paganus, from which it comes, acquired the meaning of non-Christian is still not entirely settled. In profane Latin of the 1st century a.d., paganus was used in two senses: first, in the meaning of "rural" to describe the inhabitant of a pagus, or country district; second, in the sense of "civil" or "civilian," in contrast to the "military." It was long assumed that the Christians eventually adopted the term paganus to designate a non-Christian, either because the inhabitants of country districts resisted conversion to Christianity or because the Christian was a miles Christi, "a soldier of Christ," and therefore to be distinguished in a religious sense from the non-Christian civilian. It is significant, however, that the Christians did not adopt the term paganus in the meaning of non-Christian before the age of Constantine. They commonly employed the terms of scriptural origin—nationes, gentilis, and ethnicus. With paganism still so strong in urban centers, especially in the West, there was no reason for making a sharp distinction between urban and rural conditions and for adopting a term for non-Christian that would apply primarily, if not exclusively, to rural areas. However when, in the course of the 4th century, Christians became more numerous and increasingly conscious of their own solidarity and social and religious prestige, the analogy of the contrast between paganus and militaris undoubtedly suggested the employment of the word as an appropriate designation, but not necessarily a derogatory one, for non-Christians as profane persons, outsiders, not members of the Christian community. The term, incidentally, seems to have had a history of popular usage before it was given literary and official sanction, for St. Augustine speaks of "gentiles vel iam vulgo usitato vocabulo paganos " (Epist. 184 bis 3, 5). It is first employed officially in a rescript of Valentinian I of the year a.d. 370 (Codex Theodosianus 14.2.18).

Bibliography: j. zeiller, Paganus: Étude de terminologie historique (Paris 1917); "Paganus: Sur l'origine de l'acceptation religieuse du mot," Comptes rendus de l'Acad. des Insc. et Belles Lettres (Paris 1940) 526–543. c. mohrmann, "Encore une fois: 'Paganus,"' Vigiliae christianae 6 (Amsterdam 1952) 109–121, the best treatment, and with pertinent bibliography. e. bickel, "'Pagani': Kaiseranbeter in den Laren-Kapellen der ’pagi urbani' im Rom Neros und des Apostels Petrus," Rheinisches Museum für Philologie 97 (1954) 1–47.

[m. r. p. mcguire]

pa·gan / ˈpāgən/ • n. a person holding religious beliefs other than those of the main world religions. ∎ dated, derog. a non-Christian. ∎  an adherent of neopaganism.• adj. of or relating to such people or beliefs: a pagan god.DERIVATIVES: pa·gan·ish adj.pa·gan·ism / -ˌnizəm/ n.pa·gan·ize / -ˌnīz/ v.

Yel·low Pag·es (also yel·low pag·es) • pl. n. a telephone directory, or a section of one, printed on yellow paper and listing businesses and other organizations according to the goods or services they offer. ∎  a similar directory available online through the Internet.

yellow pages Indexing information providing an online directory of services on a network. In contrast, the information of the white pages provides an online index of users on a network. In both cases the services or users indexed will normally be those of local interest, typically those on a local area network. As the yellow pages are used directly by the computer systems on the network to access services provided by other systems, there is a high premium on accuracy.

pagan XIV. — L. pāgānus rustic, peasant, citizen, civilian, (in ChrL.) non-Christian, non-Jewish, f. pāgus (rural) district, the country, orig. land-mark fixed in the earth, f. IE. *paĝ- as in L. pangere fix; see -AN. The sense ‘heathen’ of L. pāgānus is of uncert. orig.
Hence paganism XV.