Lutheran

How to spell lutheran

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce lutheran

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does lutheran mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to the Protestant denomination founded on the teachings of Martin Luther.
2. nounA member of the Protestant church founded on the teachings of Martin Luther.

Lutheran in a sentence

• adjective

  The couple were married in a small lutheran church near the harbour.

• noun

  As a lifelong lutheran, he served on the parish council for decades.

• adjective

  The choir performs in the lutheran tradition of hymn singing.

• noun

  Many of the early settlers in that region were lutheran by faith.

Where does lutheran come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word is formed directly from the surname of Martin Luther, the German monk and theologian whose protests in 1517 set off the Protestant Reformation. His family name, in older German spellings such as Luder or Lother, ultimately derives from a Germanic personal name built from elements meaning roughly 'people' and 'army', and Luther himself adjusted the spelling, partly echoing the Greek 'eleutherios', meaning 'free'. English added the common suffix -an, seen in words like 'republican' and 'Anglican', to mean 'a follower of' or 'relating to' Luther, and the term was in use by the middle of the 1500s. A small spelling trap survives the journey: the vowel after the 'th' is an unstressed schwa, so writers may be unsure whether to write 'eran', 'ren', or 'rin', when the correct ending is simply '-eran'.

How the word is built

• Luther (the surname of the German reformer Martin Luther)
• -an (suffix forming adjectives and nouns of belonging or descent)