The word "worship" has undergone a change in meaning in English. This is due primarily to the struggle of the [[Protestant Reformation]] in its influential [[polemic]] against the doctrines of the [[Catholic Church]], representing an example of what [[Linguistics|linguists]] call ''semantic shift'' and a consequent narrowing of the modern ''semantic field'' of related terms in the 20th and 21st centuries.<ref>See the following articles: | The word "worship" has undergone a change in meaning in English. This is due primarily to the struggle of the [[Protestant Reformation]] in its influential [[polemic]] against the doctrines of the [[Catholic Church]], representing an example of what [[Linguistics|linguists]] call ''semantic shift'' and a consequent narrowing of the modern ''semantic field'' of related terms in the 20th and 21st centuries.<ref>See the following articles: |