Timothy 'Bjorn' Jones

The term 'pagan' derives from the Latin 'paganus'.
While this term was offensive, referring to those who lived outside of the cities and were considered less modern, it did not originally have the religious connotations that we now understand the term to have. With the rise of Christianity within the Roman Empire, however, the use of this demeaning term switched to reference those who still practiced old religions.
These pagan practices (the religious ones, not rural-dwelling ones) would go on to be banned by the Roman Emperor Theodosius I (A.D. 346-395).

The current use of the term 'pagan' continues to refer to polytheistic (or non-Abrahamic) belief systems. Often, "neo-pagan" is used to differentiate between modern pagan practices and historical ones.