Academics studying the religion have typically favoured the terms "Heathenry" and "Heathenism" to describe it, for the reason that these words are inclusive of all varieties of the movement. This term is the most commonly used option by practitioners in the United Kingdom, with growing usage in North America and elsewhere. These terms are based on the word "", attested as the Gothic "haithn", which was adopted by Gothic Arian missionaries as the equivalent of both the Greek words "Hellenis" (Hellene, Greek) and "ethnikós" – "of a (foreign) people". The word was used by Early Medieval Christian writers in Germanic Europe to describe non-Christians; by using it, practitioners seek to reappropriate it from the Christians as a form of self-designation. Many practitioners favor the term "Heathen" over "Pagan" because the former term originated among Germanic languages, whereas "Pagan" has its origins in Latin.