Scribal abbreviation by "contraction" and was mostly a Christian usage for sacred words, Nomina Sacra; non-Christian sigla usage usually limited the number of letters the abbreviation comprised and omitted no intermediate letter. One practice was rendering an overused, formulaic phrase only as a siglum: DM for "Dis Manibus" ("Dedicated to the Manes"); IHS from the first three letters of "ΙΗΣΟΥΣ"; and RIP for "requiescat in pace" ("Rest in Peace") because the long-form written usage of the abbreviated phrase, by itself, was rare. According to Trabe, these abbreviations are not really meant to lighten the burden of the scribe but rather to shroud
Catholic (term) Catholic (term) The word catholic (with lowercase "c"; derived via Late Latin "catholicus", from the Greek adjective ("katholikos"), meaning "universal") comes from the Greek phrase ("katholou"), meaning "on the whole", "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole". The term Catholic (usually written with uppercase "C" in English) was first used to describe the Christian Church in the early 2nd century to emphasize its universal scope. In the context of Christian ecclesiology, it has a rich history and several usages. The word in English can mean either "of