Posted Jun 4, 2001 by Mycroft
Your etymology is only right up to a point: after being used as a term for a rustic, the term 'paganus' also came to be used in the sense of a civilian, as opposed to a soldier ('miles'). When Christianity came along, believers were often referred to as 'Soldiers of Christ' e.g. 'bonus miles Christi Iesu' is used in the Latin Vulgate Bible. As 'paganus' was the opposite of 'miles' it thus came to mean non-believer.
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Posted Jun 4, 2001 by ZenMondo
I am aware of this connotation as well. I omitted it for the sake of the 'flow' of the entry. The point of the entry wasn't to hash out the entire history of the word, but to find a definition that would fit the modern, current use of the word.
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Posted Jun 4, 2001 by Mycroft
OK, I'll shut up then 
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Posted Jun 4, 2001 by ZenMondo
LOL! Don't worry about it! I actually *like* criticism, and yours was especially good!
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Posted Dec 20, 2002 by WebWitch
Beaten to it! 
It would be nice to see it included in the piece, if only as a counterpoint - there are so many people who've never heard of that etymology that it would be kind of cool to arm them with it before an anti-Pagan tries to blow them out of the water by saying "Well, you obviously don't know what you're talking about..."
I'm liking the flow of these conversations - I've only been logged in since yesterday, and some of the Pagan-related discussions seem to me to have a rather combatative tone.
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Posted Jan 1, 2003 by ZenMondo
Well that is what the attached forums here are for... to flush out entries... the point is made HERE, so I don't need to make it in entry itself.
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