Let's see if we can raise the intellectual tone of this thread to match the OP.

A far more interesting question, one I was disappointed to find the OP wasn't asking, is the origin of religion - the thing, not the word. How and why did mankind come to invent or evolve religion? I have my own theory. What's yours?

But you can find the roots of religion back before Plato and Socrates,

In China for example we can go back at least 5,000 years and still find today many small temples scattered across China of many different gods.
Many of these are based on the environment and the alliance to moral behaviour.

I have visited many of these while living in China.

Many old communities that are much older than 2,000 years still have the remains of these temples and shrines that are still in the form of buildings and Not just rubble.

He said,

“O Lord,
there are many around
the drinking trough,
but there
is nothing
in the cistern.”

This attitude, in which the Contemplation ( Theoria ) of the true Idea is considered the highest goal of reason, appears very clearly in Neoplatonism as it was systematised by Plotinus.
Plato compared the highest Idea with the Sun, and Plotinus also described the meaning with the divine as the experience of Light. This Light he says comes from the highest Being, and it is Highest Being Himself .... God comes with Light, that is to say that the Light is the prooSunf of the coming of God.
He also says, without the contemplation ( Theoria ) of The Light, our Soul remains Darkness.
For those who were influenced by this Idea, The One True Life worth striving for was the Contemplative Life ( bios Theoretikos, or vita Contemplatativa )

Religion ....

1. A belief in a divine or superhuman power or principal.
(Comment.. This is where the problem is (( superhuman power or principal ))
usu. thought as the Creator of All things.
2. The manifestationof such a belief in worship
( Worship...1. Adoration, homage, etc. given to a diety.
2. the rituals prayers, etc., expressing such adoration or homage etc etc. ) ritual, conduct, etc.
3. Any system of religious faith or practice: the Jewish religion.
4. The religious or monastic life: to enter religion.
5. Anything that elicits devotion, zeal, dedication, etc.
Politics is his religion. (Latin - L religio)

But it is The Knowledge of Truth, that sets you free and Not Belief as most would have you believe.

Origin:
1150–1200; ME religioun (< OF religion) < L religiōn- (s. of religiō) conscientiousness, piety, equiv. to relig(āre) to tie, fasten (re- re- + ligāre to bind, tie; cf. ligament ) + -iōn- -ion; cf. rely

First thank you for the star...

In Ionic Greek...

I cant tell you the year of origin, but can only say, perhaps earlier than 2,000 BC.

It is of the Original Ionic Greek Greek Language. (Very Very Ancient when Only upper case Greek fonts were used)

I cant write in Greek fonts here, but I will spell the word phonetically....

Theta, Rho, Eta, Sigma, Kappa, Omicron, Sigma.

Religion.

Theta, Rho, Eta, Sigma, Kappa, Epsilon, Nu, Sigma.

Religious worship, service, observance...

But remember this is the Understanding of the word given to us by the scribes or Authorised Linguistics Departments of today.

But never the less the word Religion has its roots from perhaps as far back before 2,000 BC

Note:- Also The main language of the day of Jesus was Not Hebrew.

Aramaic is a Semitic language with a 3,000-year history.[3] It has been the language of administration of empires and the language of divine worship. It was the day-to-day language of Israel in the Second Temple period (539 BCE – 70 CE), the original language of large sections of the biblical books of Daniel and Ezra, likely to have been the mother tongue of Jesus of Nazareth and is the main language of the Talmud.Aramaic belongs to the Afro-Asiatic language family. Within that diverse family, it belongs to the Semitic subfamily. Aramaic is a part of the Northwest Semitic group of languages, which also includes the Canaanite languages such as Hebrew and Phoenician. It is also related to Arabic, being part of the more diverse Central Semitic languages.[5] Aramaic script was widely adopted for other languages, and is ancestral to the Arabic and Hebrew alphabets.

Aramaic's long history and diverse and widespread use has led to the development of many divergent varieties which are sometimes treated as dialects. Thus, there is no one Aramaic language, but each time and place has had its own variety. Aramaic is retained as a liturgical language by certain Eastern Christian sects, in the form of Syriac, the Aramaic variety by which Eastern Christianity was diffused, whether or not those communities once spoke it or another form of Aramaic as their vernacular, but have since shifted to another language as their primary community language.

Modern Aramaic is spoken today as a first language by many scattered, predominantly small, and largely isolated communities of differing Christian, Jewish and Muslim groups of the Middle East[6]—most numerously by the Assyrians in the form of Assyrian Neo-Aramaic—that have all retained use of the once dominant lingua franca despite subsequent language shifts experienced throughout the Middle East. The Aramaic languages are considered to be endangered.

14.
And when Joseph saw the understanding of The Child and his age,
that He was growing to maturity,
he resolved again that He should not remain ignorant of LETTERS;
and he took Him and handed Him over to another teacher.

And the teacher said to Joseph:
"First I will teach Him Greek, and Then Hebrew."

For the teacher knew The Child's knowledge
and was afraid of Him.
Nevertheless he WROTE the alphabet and practised it with Him
for a long time;
but He gave him no answer.

And Jesus said to him:
If you are indeed a teacher, and if you know the Letters
well, tell Me the Meaning of The ALPHA,
and I will tell you that of THE BETA."

Originally posted by Watcher-In-The-Shadows
reply to post by The Matrix Traveller

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Um, Aramaic is the langauge of Jesus or so it is claimed. It gave an offshoot in the form of Hebrew, but that was later.