Etymology: < amen n.

Etymology: Originally (i) < post-classical Latin amen (interjection) truly, so be it, used as a solemn expression of belief, affirmation, consent, concurrence, or ratification (Vulgate), especially at the end of a prayer (4th or 5th cent. in Augustine), (noun) used as a title of Christ (Vulgate: Revelation 3:14), an utterance of the word ‘amen’ (4th cent.) < Hellenistic Greek ἀμήν (interjection) truly, so be it (Septuagint, New Testament), (noun) as a title of Christ (New Testament: Revelation 3:14) < Hebrew 'āmēn certainly, verily, surely, use as adverb of 'āmēn faithfulness, truth < 'āman to confirm, to support. In later use probably reinforced by (ii) Anglo-Norman and Old French, Middle French amen (c1139; French amen) < post-classical Latin amen.Compare Old Occitan amen (12th cent.), Catalan amén (13th cent.), Spanish amén (a1207), Portuguese amém (second half of the 13th cent. as †amen ), Italian amen (second half of the 13th cent.); also Middle Dutch āmen (Dutch amen ), Middle Low German āmen , Old High German āmen (Middle High German āmen , German Amen ). Because the interjection is typically used at the end of a text or section of text (compare especially senses A. 1 and A. 3), it is not always clear in early manuscript contexts whether an attestation of amen is to be understood as showing use of the word in English or post-classical Latin. However, as the word is attested in contexts that are otherwise wholly in English, there is sufficient evidence to support the assumption that the word was borrowed already in Old English, even though elsewhere in Old English texts which translate post-classical Latin sources amen is often rendered by a number of vernacular phrases, especially sīe hit swā (lit. ‘be it so’), sōðlīce (compare the variant reading in quot. OE² at sense A. 1 and see soothly adv. 1), and variants of these. N.E.D. (1884) gives the pronunciation as (ēⁱ:me·n) /ˌeɪˈmɛn/, often (ā:me·n) /ˌɑːˈmɛn/. Several 19th-century dictionaries record stress on both syllables. Before the 1880s, dictionaries give only the a of face for the vowel of the first syllable; thereafter, Webster's dictionaries observe that the form with the a of palm is used chiefly in singing, while British dictionaries give both pronunciations, listing the latter pronunciation first after c1900.