Etymology matters sometimes

The word “atonement” can be traced back to 1526, when the English writer William Tyndale (ca. 1494-1536) was confronted with the task of translating the New Testament into English. There was, at that time, no English word which meant “reconciliation.” Tyndale thus had to invent such a word — “at-one-ment.” This word soon came to bear the meaning “the benefits which Jesus Christ brings to believers through his death upon the cross.” This unfamiliar word is rarely used in modern English, and has a distinctively old-fashioned feel to it. Rather than convey the impression that “Christian thought is totally out of date, theologians now generally prefer to speak of this area as “the doctrine of the work of Christ.”—Alister McGrath, Theology: The Basics (2nd ed.), 87