Bartholomew
name ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 An Apostle, identified with Nathanael. (biblical character)
"Now the names of the twelve apostles are these; The first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip, and Bartholomew; Thomas, and Matthew the publican; James the son of Alphaeus, and Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus; Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him."
- 2 A male given name from Aramaic of biblical origin.
- 3 A surname.
Example
More examples"In Istanbul, more than a dozen Orthodox men jumped into the frigid waters of the Golden Horn amid heavy rains in a ceremony led by Patriarch Bartholomew I."
Etymology
From Latin Bartholomaeus, from Ancient Greek Βαρθολομαῖος (Bartholomaîos), from Aramaic בר תלמי (bar tolmai, “son of Talmai; son of Ptolemy”), from בר (bar, “son”) and תלמי (tolmai, “Talmai; Ptolemy”). It has long been unclear whether the Apostle's father was named after the biblical Talmai, king of Geshur, or one of the Greek Ptolemies, as the two originally unrelated names were conflated in Jewish Aramaic. The name's pronunciation was changed to match the spelling; contrast French Barthélemy from the same source.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.