EtymologyIt is the secular world that took a word meaning spreading the faith and turned it into lying about politics.The word originates from the Latin name Congregatio de Propaganda Fide ("Congregation for the Spreading of the Faith") of a congregation founded by Pope Gregory XV in 1622. This department of the pontifical administration was charged with the spread of Catholicism and with the regulation of ecclesiastical affairs in mission territory.
The Latin adjective propaganda, which is a form of the gerundive of the verb propago (from pro- "forth" + *pag-, root of pangere "to fasten"), means "that which is to be spread" and does not carry a connotation of information, misleading or otherwise. The modern sense dates from World War I, when the term evolved to be mainly associated with politics.