The Greek word baptizein (βαπτίζω), meaning "to dip or plunge," originally referred to anything from dipping a ladle into a bowl of wine to sinking ships to bathing. In Christianity, baptism is the sacrament of initiation in which water is applied to the head of the initiate, or the initiate is immersed in water. The ritual likely developed from the Jewish practice of ritual immersion in a mikveh, or Jewish ritual bath.