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[Facts] By Jah, I think they've got it...
"Eccles" is an element in several English place names, including Eccles, Ecclesfield, Eccleshall, Eccleston. According to Mills's "Dictionary of English Place Names, "eccles" evolved from a Celtic word "egles" (long second "e") meaning "a Romano-British Christian church". Equivalent word in French for a regular Catholic church is "eglise".So the "ecclesiastic" connection looks to be spot-on.- da.
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...and the Celts no doubt adapted "egles" from the Wizzygoths :PHere's the strait dope as per the infallible Oxford English Dictionary:[med.L., a. Gr. ekklesia, f. ekkletos called out, f. ekkalein to call out.]Ecclesia: A Greek word for a regularly convoked assembly; chiefly applied to the general assembly of Athenian citizens. On the introduction of Christianity it became the regular word for church. 1577 tr. Bullinger's Decades (1592) 79 Ecclesia, which worde wee vse for the Church, is properly an assembly. 1820 T. Mitchell Aristoph. I. 227 The ecclesia consisted of all such as were freemen of Athens. 1849 Grote Hist. Greece (1862) ii. lxiv. V. 533 That misguided vote, both of the Senate and of the Ekklesia.
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