paganus

Paganus is a Latin term with several related meanings in classical and late antique texts. In its earliest sense, paganus described someone who was rural, rustic, or a country-dweller, and as a noun it could mean a civilian or layperson, often contrasted with military or urban elites. The word is derived from pagus, meaning a district or country, and it historically carried the sense of belonging to the countryside rather than to the city or to the early Christian communities.

With the spread of Christianity in the Roman Empire, paganus acquired a new religious sense. Christian writers used it to designate adherents of traditional polytheistic religions—non-Christians in general—often as a social and religious category rather than a neutral description. The term could carry pejorative overtones depending on context and author, reflecting tensions between Christian communities and the broader pagan world.

From Latin, paganus passed into the Romance languages and into English as pagan, giving rise to the modern concept of a follower of pagan religions. In contemporary usage, pagan can refer to historical polytheists and to adherents of modern pagan or polytheistic revival movements (such as Neopaganism and Druidic paths). In scholarly contexts, the term is typically treated as descriptive for non-Christian religious traditions of antiquity, while in everyday language it can be used neutrally or as a pejorative depending on tone and intention.

Paganus thus traces a path from a simple geographic or social label to a religious category, and finally to a broader modern use describing various polytheistic and nature-based spiritual traditions.