Agape

There are two homographs in English written agape. They have completely separate origins, meanings and pronunciations.

• The more common is an adverb derived from an Old North Germanic verb gapa, 'to gape', 'hold the mouth wide open', prefixed by the common Old English a- suggesting position. It means 'with the mouth held [wide] open [in wonder, shock etc]'. This word is pronounced 'er-GAPE' IPA: /ə'geɪp/ - and is never used as an adjective, for which 'gaping', or 'wide open' might suit, or the idiom 'with his jaw dropped', or 'jaw-dropping[ly]'.
• A word more likely to be found in academic English, specifically in Theology, is the noun agape. It is derived from the Greek ἀγάπη (agape), 'brotherly love'. From this origin come its trisyllabic pronunciation 'A-gerp-i', IPA: /'ægəpɪ/, and the plural form preferred in academic circles agapae or agapai. It is a term used in the Christian religion, where it is a commonplace to distinguish agape ('holy love', first that of Man to God, later extended to that between individuals in a completely non-sexual way) from eros (ἔρως, 'bodily love' or the natural sexual bond). This distinction was later extended by C.S.Lewis, in The Four Loves (1960), a book written in his role as a popular theologian, to agape, eros, storge (στοργή, 'affection') and philia (φιλία, 'friendship').

The current use of ἀγάπη (agape) is translated in the AV as "charity", reflecting the Vulgate Latin caritas.

• • Historically, ἀγάπη in the context of Christianity was first used to mean the 'love-feast' of the early Christians, roughly equivalent to the modern Eucharist.