To preach the Christian gospel to people; to try to convert people to Christianity or to a particular belief with passionate enthusiasm.
From 'evangel' (gospel) plus '-ize' (verb-forming suffix). Emerged in the 16th-17th centuries to create an action verb from the noun concept.
'-ize' verbs exploded in English during the Scientific Revolution—scholars wanted action words from their concepts, so 'evangelize,' 'theorize,' 'analyze' all emerged during the same transformative period!
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