One Step Now Education

Oct. 3, 2025

proselytize

Yuval Noah Harari wrote a "brief" history of humankind, "Sapiens," in 2015, making waves in both academic and popular circles. Harari has reimagined the work in graphic novel form, and I have been enjoying the installments as they have come out. When reading on the interactions of humankind and religion, I became intrigued by the word proselytize.

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In our exploration of this words meaning, structure, relatives, and graphemes, we will review the verbal paradigm and the associated inflectional suffixes. We'll recall that affixes are bound by their definition and that the suffix <-ize> has two spellings. We will glance at the orthographic denotation and how it is different from the definition of a word. Finally, we'll look at graphemes that are signs of Greek origin, and spot a further example of how schwa can give some spelling troubles.

Meaning

What is this word's meaning and how does the word function?

Having grown up in the Southern Baptist tradition, I am quite familiar with the term proselytize. In my layman's definition, proseltyizing meant going out and spreading the word of God, especially to those who may be unfamiliar. Collins dictionary supports my definition, adding in their entry that the beliefs may be political as well.

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The dictionary definition, along with the fact that I was able to derive the form proselytizing to explain my definition above, shows us this word is a verb. In order to show tense, we can inflect verbs with different suffixes. These inflectional suffixes in the verbal paradigm include <-s>, <-ed>, <-ing>, and <-en> for some verbs.

Structure

What are the elements that make up this word's structure?

Another clue to this word's form, or class as a verb is the suffix <-ize>. We can add <-ize> to a noun or adjective to create verbs. To look up suffixes in Etymonline, just add a hyphen in front of it. The hyphen indicates that this element cannot appear alone, but is bound to another element. By their definition, all suffixes are bound.

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Coming back to our word, we now have a hypothesis of

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proselyt + ize

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If you are in the UK or parts of Australia and Canada, you may use the <-ise> form of this suffix:

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proselyt + ise

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A few weeks ago, we investigated the word prosperity and discovered it had a prefix <pro->. Could this word have that prefix as well?

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pro + selyt + ize

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Like suffixes, you can look up some prefixes in Etymonline as well by placing the hyphen after the element to show that another element will come after the word. Something about that proposed base doesn't sit right with me. Could it be analyzed further? I'm thinking of words like separate and secede where the

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pro + se + lyt + ise

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Let's take a look at the Online Etymology Dictionary to understand the root of our word.

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The entry for proselytize tells me this word is formed from proselyte + -ize. That is enough proof for the suffix that also has the form <-ise>. Let's click on the entry for proselyte.

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This word, which was unfamiliar to me up to this point, is a noun for someone who "changes from one sect or creed to another." Our word first came from French, but the French form is from Latin. The story doesn't stop there, however, as Latin received this word from Greek proselytos where it literally had the orthographic denotation of "one who has come over."

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Meanings drift over time. The orthographic denotation of a word is the original sense from the word's root. It may or may not have carried over into the definition of the word.

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The entry continues in the second paragraph saying it is from the element eleusomai, "go; come." Let's click on the link for that first element.

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Etymonline calls this a "word-forming element." The Introduction and Explanation page for Etymonline provides us with the explanations for the terms Douglas Harper, the sole author of Etymonline, uses. Word-forming element is not on there. I rarely find an Etymonline entry that directly says an element is a prefix or suffix. I just know that he provides a hyphen after the element, meaning this element will be bound to another.

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This element is used to form words where it lends a sense of "toward; before." We can find it in words like prosthesis or prosody, where the

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pros + elyte/ + ize

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The meaning from the elements can be construed as "someone who comes forth."

Relatives

What are the word's relatives and history?

Given this word has a Greek origin, we can see several suffixes in this family that also have a Greek origin. We have the <-ic> in proselytic and the <-ism> in proselytism. In English, we have used our familiar agent suffix <-er> to derive proselyter.

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If we go back to the Proto-Indo-European, or PIE, root, there may be an etymological connection to the name Leopold and liberal. Someone who is eleutherian is "like a free man." Eleusis was a town outside out of Athens associated with the goddess Demeter.

Graphemes

What can the pronunciation of the word teach us about the relationship of its graphemes and its phonology?

It is the schwa which may provide the most trouble in spelling this word. A schwa is the mid-central vowel sound we hear in unstressed syllables. We have a clear "short

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ˈprɑsələˌtaɪz

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In many cases we can look to a word's relatives to help us determine which vowel grapheme is used to spell schwa. This is why we consider relatives before graphemes in our Four Question Framework. In the word proselytic, we need a vowel that can spell "short " in our base. Although an can serve that purpose, the Greek origin of our word suggests it could be a

Next Steps

What concepts from this investigation can we explore next to learn more about the English orthographic system?

I think the biggest surprise for me in this investigation was the element I thought might be

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Stay curious,

Brad

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P.S. Know another tutor who has trouble distinguishing between free and bound elements? Or maybe inflectional and derivational suffixes? Forward this to them and help them out. Then they can subscribe at this link where this weekly WIN will remind them of the distinctions on a regular basis.

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P.P.S. Some resources list items like