Why is canon called canon?

[Elijah Ball]

I first heard of canon (meaning something in the story of a game, book, etc, (to the best of my knowledge)) when red vs blue did the video about caboose playing the campaign. ever since then it seems like it's everywhere.

Why is it called canon, and when did this term start being used?

 

[That_Sneaky_Camper]

It comes from the Bible. The Early Christian Church decided what was genuinely official material written by Jesus' followers and what was a cheap knock-off. What was official was referred to as the Biblical Canon of which there are 66 books in the Bible. Since then all forms of media have adopted the term canon to refer to what is an official part of their story and what isn't.

 

[Humza Ahmad]

Interesting I never knew that before.

 

[RadioactiveMicrobe]

The more you know...

 

[DarkRyter]

The word canon derives itself from the Italian Canonzia, which stands for "he who blatantly lies on internet forums.".

 

[Richard Hannay]

The word itself was derived from ancient Greek and referred to a reed or rod used as a standard of measurement to which people should adhere. Eventually, it came to refer to a standard of measurement dictated by the church to which people should adhere. And then the Bible thing.

Cannon, on the other hand, referred to a reed or rod used to shoot stuff (which is why the words are similar).

 

[2xDouble]

From Dictionary.com, bolded the notables:

can·on
[kan-uhn]

noun
1. an ecclesiastical rule or law enacted by a council or other competent authority and, in the Roman Catholic Church, approved by the pope.
2. the body of ecclesiastical law.
3. the body of rules, principles, or standards accepted as axiomatic and universally binding in a field of study or art: the neoclassical canon.
4. a fundamental principle or general rule: the canons of good behavior.
5. a standard; criterion: the canons of taste.
6. the books of the Bible recognized by any Christian church as genuine and inspired.
7. any officially recognized set of sacred books.
8. any comprehensive list of books within a field.
9. the works of an author that have been accepted as authentic: There are 37 plays in the Shakespeare canon.
10. a catalog or list, as of the saints acknowledged by the Church.


Origin:
before 900; Middle English, Old English < Latin < Greek kanon: measuring rod, rule, akin to kánna: cane

 

[Knife]

Actually it goes before christianity, 5-6 centuries BC the Jewish Kingdom of Judah got invaded by Babylonians lead by a fellow named Nebuchadnezzar (you know, the guy who was named after Morpheus's ship), after finally conquering them, Babylonians as was their custom in such cases exiled most of the population. The people who stayed back in Judah developed their own religious texts/stories and those who got exiled to Babylon developed their own. After a couple of centuries the exiles returned. The religious leaders then tried to connect the two different traditions into one coherent set of books. The result was their canon (which is a Greek word for rules) - the old testament. Ofcourse then Christianity got onboard a few centuries later and got their own canon - the new testament. And then other fiction started using it as well.
We learned canon back in high school.

 

[Lizardon]

Wow, I always thought it was just a fan term that caught on.