John 1:25

Strong’s #G907, baptizó. To plunge under, sink, submerge. It originates from baptó (#G911) to dip and so we read,

“…that he might dip [baptó] the peak of the Finger of himself of water…” 

Luke 16:24 RBT

The Greek verb βαπτίζω (baptízō), derived from the root βάπτω (“to dip”), originally meant to plunge, immerse, submerge, and more broadly to drench, overwhelm, or sink. In classical and Hellenistic usage, it could refer to the plunging of a sword into flesh (Josephus, BJ 2.18.4), the sinking of ships (Polybius 1.51.6), or even metaphorical immersion in sleep or sorrow (Plato, Symp. 176b; Libanius, Or. 64.115). It also appears in mundane contexts such as drawing wine by dipping a cup (Aristophanes, Fragmenta 14.5).

With the emergence of Christian texts, the term was not translated into Latin and other languages, but transliterated phonetically (Greek βαπτίζω → Latin baptizo), thereby creating a new lexical item. This process of transliteration (rather than semantic translation) resulted in a word — “baptize” — that became narrowly defined by ritual and theological use, ultimately detaching from the broader range of physical or metaphorical meanings found in earlier Greek. Thus, “John the Baptist” (ὁ βαπτιστής) could be rendered lexically as “John the Dipper” or “John the Submerger,” though later ecclesiastical usage sanctified the term within the liturgical register.