edification

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English (from Anglo-French), from Latin aedificātiōn-, stem of aedificātiō “act or process of building; a building”; in Late Latin also “spiritual improvement”; see origin at edify, -fication;see also aedicule,

The many millions of Catholics who have attended parochial school will confirm that there is for the good nuns no more potent a word than edification (and the verb it is derived from, edify ). In Latin, the noun aedificātiō (stem aedificātiōn- ) means merely “the act or process of erecting a building, the building itself, an edifice, a collection of buildings, a built-up area.” These “building” senses also existed in English, but they are now rare or obsolete.
In the Vulgate (the Latin version of the Bible, prepared chiefly by Saint Jerome at the end of the 4th century), aedificātiō acquired the sense “spiritual development, improvement of the soul.” The current English sense “mental or moral improvement; instruction” dates from the mid-17th century.