Today I was in a meeting and the person presenting used catholic in a sentence, he said the product was fairly catholic. I assumed that it was some sort of pun or joke, which I didn't get and I wasn't really that interested in clarifying. However another person in the grouped questioned his use of the word catholic and he seemed surprised that she had not heard the word used in this fashion. He clarified that he meant the product was fairly generic, another person in the group backed up his use of the word and we moved on. However this intrigued me as I had only heard of the word catholic relating to religion, so I did a little Googling!
Dictionary.com backed up the definition of this word as meaning universal or generic. I also found a Wikipedia article and it mentioned that the word catholic was derived from the Latin word catholicus, meaning universal. The reason that the word is associated with religion is because the Christian Church adopted the word catholic to describe themselves as being the universal and most extensive religion in the world early in the second century. Previously I had only ever heard the word used to denote a person of Christian faith associated with the Roman Catholic Church. Until today I had always thought the word had been created to describe the Roman Catholics as a branch of religion within the Christian faith, just as there are Protestants and Anglicans who are also of Christian faith. However I realise now that the word existed before the inception of the Roman Catholic Church and was initially adopted by all Christians to describe the scope of their religion. Presumably that is the same reason the the Roman Catholic Church adopted the word formally into their name. I guess it shows that, as the Christian faith is the most extensive in the world, the Roman Catholics are the most extensive group within the Christian faith.
If you want to read the definition, try Dictionary.com or to read more about the word's history and use check out Wikipedia.
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