Baptise

The consensus position

Mainstream comparative linguistics derives baptise from Middle English baptisen, from Old French baptiser, from Late Latin baptizare, from Greek baptizein, an intensive of baptein 'to dip', usually traced to Proto-Indo-European *gwebh- 'to sink, submerge' with Germanic cognates such as Old Norse kvefja, though Beekes treats baptein as possibly pre-Greek. No connection to Shona is recognised; Shona kubhabhatidza is held to be a borrowing from Latin via missionaries.