What connects Jesus Christ, the central figure of Christianity, and Indian households’ beloved ‘ghee’ (घी / ঘি/घृत)? The answer lies in a linguistic journey spanning millennia, crossing continents, and culminating in an unexpected shared origin.
inguistics often reveals these unexpected connections, reminding us how intertwined human histories are. It begins with the word Christ. Derived from Latin Christus – the origin traces back to ancient Greek khristos, meaning “the anointed one.”
This term is rooted in the Greek verb khrein, which means “to rub” or “to anoint.” Interestingly, khreinitself has deeper origins in the Proto-Indo-European root ghrēi-, also meaning “to rub”.
Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the ancient, reconstructed language believed to be the ancestor of many modern languages spoken in Europe, South Asia, and parts of the Middle East. It existed around 4000–2500 BCE and spread as people migrated.
Linguists pieced together PIE by comparing similarities in words and grammar across its descendant languages, like how “mother” is similar in Sanskrit (mātṛ), Latin (mater), and English (mother). PIE helps us understand the shared roots of many languages today.
So, why the emphasis on rubbing or anointing? In ancient Israel and Judah, anointing with oil was a key ceremonial act. Kings, priests, and prophets were symbolically “rubbed” with a specially blended oil as part of their consecration rituals.
In the Greek world, anointing wasn’t exclusive to kings or priests. Even, the athletes and bathers were also “anointed” with oil, a practice immortalized in sculptures of apoxyomenos—figures scraping off oil after training.
The Hebrew term for “the anointed one” was māšīyaḥ (Messiah). Greek translations rendered it as ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ (Christos), which in turn became Christus in Latin, and eventually Christ in English.
Over time, this original association with anointing faded, transforming the term into a title uniquely tied to Jesus. What once described a ceremonial act evolved into a Christological title, synonymous with Jesus and divorced from its etymological roots.
The oil used in ceremonial anointment, called “chrism,” derives from the Proto-Indo-European root ghrēi– (“to rub”). Interestingly, this root also gave rise to the modern word “cream.”
Now, let’s pivot to India and its culinary treasure, ‘Ghee’. The Indian word for clarified butter, ghee (घी / ঘি), comes from Sanskrit घृत (-ghṛta), which means “clarified butter” and is derived from the root ghṛ-, meaning “to sprinkle” or “to rub” or “to shine”.
And here’s the twist: ghṛ- traces back to the same Proto-Indo-European root ghrēi-, which also gave the word Christ. It’s no coincidence—ghee was also used in our culture for rubbing in rituals and medicinal practices, much like the anointing traditions tied to Christ.
Yes, the linguistic root that gave us Christ also gave us ghee. Both words, in their earliest forms, revolved around the act of rubbing or anointing. While one word became central to Christian theology, the other became indispensable to Desi cuisine.
It’s poetic to think of a simple bowl of rice with a drizzle of ghee as a kind of benediction – an anointing of sorts. It elevates the mundane into sacred, almost divine. And if you still don’t believe ghee is heaven-sent, you might just be committing blasphemy.
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We learned this from a tweet from Dr. Danny Bate quite a few years back. So, all credit goes to him.
