English language shaped by grand Bible translations

What would the English language be without the English Bible? Etymologists say the grand old Bibles, along with Shakespeare, pretty much established the tongue and their words still resonate.

Consider "Passover," for example. The English label for Judaism's annual festival originated with a Christian Bible. (The Hebrew "Pesach" literally means "Passage.")

That's one example from "Coined by God" (W.W. Norton) by Stanley Malless and Jeffrey McQuain, which demonstrates the verbal impact of pioneering English Bibles. (The same duo previously compiled "Coined by Shakespeare.")

The book treats 131 English words and phrases from "adoption" to "zeal" that first appeared in Bible editions, often with intriguing modern examples. Excluded are biblically inspired phrases that weren't used verbatim ("Good Samaritan," "promised land").

Malless and McQuain feature five Bibles that were translated during two centuries or so of incredible turmoil:

1. John Wycliffe put much of the Latin Bible into English (1382), but Catholicism outlawed his pioneering work and later versions based on it. A later ecumenical council judged his Protestant-style beliefs heretical and because Wycliffe was dead and couldn't be punished, his remains were exhumed and burned.

2. William Tyndale produced the first New Testament from Greek (1526) and the first Old Testament Pentateuch from Hebrew (1530). Hounded from England, he was kidnapped on the Continent, then garroted and burned to death, partly because of this translation.

3. Miles Coverdale did the first complete English Bible (1535). Exiled from England three times, he returned as a vagabond and died in poverty.

4. The Geneva Bible (1560) was a popular translation produced in that Swiss city by Protestant exiles from repression under "Bloody Mary."

5. The King James Version (1611), another team effort, was the king's political payoff to the Church of England's Puritan Party. Many beloved King James wordings come from the four predecessors.

(Malless and McQuain ignore the Douai Bible of 1609, produced by Roman Catholic exiles from England.)

An A-B-C sampling of biblical verbiage:

"All things to all men" (1 Corinthians 9:22, appeared first in the King James Version): In translating this phrase about satisfying everyone on nonessentials, Wycliffe used the less euphonious "to all men I am made all things."

"Ancient of Days" (Daniel 7:9, Geneva Bible): This title for God seems more august than Coverdale's "old-aged."

"Apple of his eye" (Deuteronomy 32:10, Tyndale): The phrase for a cherished object referred to the eye's pupil, called the "apple" because it was thought to be spherical.

"Argument" (Acts 1:3, Wycliffe): The term for presentation of evidence, rendered "proofs" in later renditions, came from the Indo-European for "gleaming" and the Latin for "silver," signifying that a clear case shines forth.

"Blab" (Proverbs 15:2, Coverdale): This chatty verb for empty verbosity disappeared in later translations.

"Blood-money" (Matthew 27:6, Coverdale): The invented phrase for payment at the expense of another's life or suffering came from Martin Luther's original German Bible. Coverdale coined "bloodthirsty."

"Botch" (2 Chronicles 34:10, Wycliffe): A verb now associated with bungling originally meant "patch" or "repair."

"Brain" (Isaiah 66:3, Wycliffe): This verb for head-bashing came from the Old English noun.

"Broken-hearted" (Luke 4:18, Tyndale): A colorful compound from Anglo-Saxon words.

"Busybody" (1 Peter 4:15, Tyndale): Another snappy compound, from an Old English adjective and verb. A modern Bible uses the equally alliterative "mischief-maker."

"Castaway" (1 Corinthians 9:27, Tyndale): A created noun for a rejected person, drawn from an Old Norse verb.

Child-bearing" (Genesis 25:24, Isaiah 49:21, Wycliffe): This coined compound from Old English words did double duty as a noun and adjective.

"Consumer" (Malachi 3:11, Coverdale): The contemporary-sounding noun referred here to a locust, not a human purchaser.

"Cucumber" (Isaiah 1:8, Wycliffe): As with many biblical words, the vegetable's name came directly from Latin ("cucumeres").