基督

Etymology
First attested in the manuscripts of French Catholic missionary (c. 1662–1707) Classical Chinese translation of the New Testament, and possibly abbreviated from the pre-existing translation. Although Basset's manuscripts were not widely circulated, they were consulted by British Protestant missionary, who used in his own Chinese translations of the Bible in the early 19th century. The term subsequently gained popularity and replaced other tetrasyllabic translations of "Christ" (e.g. ) in the mid-19th century.

Proper noun

 * 1) Christ

Etymology
Imported by Jesuit scribes from Jesuit translations into Chinese, coined originally in Chinese texts as an abbreviation of transcription. First attested in the 1590s.

This spelling was standard until roughly the mid- (1890s), since which time the katakana spelling has become more common.