The Greek βαπτισμός and its Slavonic and Russian equivalent <i>krъštenie</i>
The Old High German kristen ‘to christianize’ was the slogan of Charlemagne’s struggle for the Christian Empire. The Slavs residing within and near the borders of the Empire adopted it as krьstiti to translate Greek NT βαπτίζω. As a result, the deverbative krьstъ received the meaning ‘cross’, whereas a parallel deverbative krъštenie means βαπτισμός. Besides, the early Slavonic NT text used this name to denote some other ritual actions (Mk 7.4, Lk 11.38).