The verb “secularize” is first attested in English in the early 17th century in the sense of “put [church property] to profane use,” the derivative noun secularization in 1706. This sense, which derives from canon law (saecularisatio, from saecularis, “of this age”, “worldly,” “pagan”), predates a broader sense of “dissociation from religious concerns,” the shades of which are captured in a larger lexical field in German.