desecrate

Etymology

It is formed from English de- + consecrate,^[2][3][4][5] taking only a shortened form of the second part, with the prefix in its reversing sense.^[6][7][5] Consecrate is from Latin cōnsecrō (“to dedicate, devote as sacred”), from con- and sacrō (“to make sacred”), from sacer (“sacred”).^[2] Old French dessacrer (“to profane, violate, unhallow”), still in Cotgrave in 1611, and Italian dissacrare (“to unconsecrate, unhallow”), in Florio, may have suggested the English formation;^[2][8] Etymonline notes them only as similar formations.^[3] The Latin verb dēsecrō or dēsacrō is no direct source, since it meant the opposite, to consecrate or dedicate.^{[2][3][9][10]} Etymonline explains its dē- as completive.^[3] Skeat still derived the English verb from it, with the sense changed under the influence of the Old French word,^[11] and Johnson gave its variant as the source.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

To dismiss or degrade someone from holy orders: 1674, in the fourth edition of T. Blount's Glossographia.^[2][8] To take away the sacred character of something follows in 1675, in L. Addison's Present State of the Jews,^[2][7] which Barnhart dates as before 1677.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The word was built as the reverse of consecrate, and its first record concerns a person, a cleric removed from orders, a use the OED now calls archaic.^[2][13] The treatment of sacred things as no longer hallowed became the main sense.^[2][3] Johnson (1755) defined it narrowly, as diverting something from the purpose it was consecrated to, and quoted Salmon's Survey on founders who cursed those who should "desecrate their donations".^[12] From 1825 it could also mean to devote something to an evil purpose,^[2][14] as in J. Stephen's "desecrated to Satan".^[13] Later it spread to things that are merely admired, in the sense of spoiling or treating them with contempt,^[13][5] as in John Fischer's complaint about shore development that "has desecrated so many waterfronts".^[15] The noun desecration is recorded from before 1717.^[2][3]

Timeline

• 1674 – to dismiss or degrade from holy orders.^[2][8]
• 1675 – to take away the sacred character of something; to profane.^[2][7] Barnhart has it before 1677.^[8]
• 1825 – to divert from a sacred to a profane purpose; to devote to something evil.^[2][14]
• 1873 – adjective, desecrated, in Browning's Red Cotton Night-cap Country.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To violate the sanctity of a sacred place or thing by damaging it or treating it with disrespect; to profane: Vandals desecrated the village chapel.^[4][7][6][2]
2. To spoil, or treat with contempt, something that is valued though not sacred: Billboards desecrated the quiet valley.^[5][15][13]
3. To remove the consecration from a person, object or building; to deconsecrate.^[4][2]
4. To divert something from a sacred purpose to a profane or evil one.^[7][2][13]
5. (archaic) To dismiss or degrade someone from holy orders.^[2][13]

Adjective

1. Having been desecrated.^[2][7]

Word family

• desecrater
• desecration

Related words

• consecrate
• sacred

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
5. ^ a b c d Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ a b Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
15. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster