A Definition

of "Kirk"

As a common noun, kirk is the Scots and Scottish English word for “church”
attested as a noun from the 14th century onwards, but as an element in place
names much earlier.

Both words, kirk and church, derive from the Koine Greek (kyriakon (doma))
meaning Lord’s (house), which was borrowed into the Germanic languages
in late antiquity, possibly in the course of the Gothic missions. (Only a
connection with the idiosyncrasies of Gothic explains how a Greek neuter
noun became a Germanic feminine.)

Wherereas church displays Old English palatalisation, kirk is likely to be a
loanword from Old Norse and thus has the original mainland Germanic
consonants. Compare these cognates: Icelandic & Faroese “kirkja”; Swedish
“kyrka”; Norwegian & Danish “kirke”; German “kirche”; Dutch “kerk”; Frisian“tsjerke”; and borrowed into non-Germanic languages: Estonian “kirik” and Finnish “kirkko”.

As a proper noun, The Kirk is an informal name for the Church of Scotland,
the country’s national church. The Kirk of Scotland was in official use as the
name of the Church of Scotland until the 17th century, and still today the term
is frequently used in the press and everyday speech, though seldom in the
Church’s own literature. However, Kirk Session is still the standard term in
church law for the court of elders in the local parish, both in the church of
Scotland and in any of the other Scottish Presbyterian denominations.