prédicant

in French, the noun appears at the latest in 1523, in a sottie: sottie des béguins, published in Geneva. It would be derived from predikant, a term originating in southern Germany and Swiss German, from the second half of the 15th century, before the Reformation. It then meets with some success in French-speaking Switzerland and in particular in the writings of Calvin: it qualifies the Protestant preacher. From the late 1550s, it imposes itself almost brutally, both in royal acts and in the language of Catholics, with a depreciation of the term. From the Latin praedicare.