sacrament

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English sacrement, later sacrament,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French sacrement, also sacrament,^[2][3][4][5] and directly borrowed from Latin sacrāmentum (“solemn oath, obligation”);^[2][6][4] Hoad explains the spelling with -a- as an assimilation to the Latin.^[7] In Anglo-Norman the word is recorded from the mid 12th century, already meaning an oath, a sacred mystery, one of the rites of the Church and the consecrated bread or wine.^[8] The Latin noun is formed from sacrō (“to consecrate, set apart as sacred”) with the suffix -mentum,^[5][4][9] and the verb from sacer (“holy, sacred”), the source of sacred.^{[5][10][3][11]} In Christian Latin it was used to translate Ancient Greek μυστήριον (mustḗrion, “mystery”).^{[5][12][13][14]} The same Latin word gave serment (“oath”) as the popular French form.^[5][14]

Earliest recorded meaning

Any of the solemn rites of the Christian Church: about 1175, in the Lambeth Homilies.^[5] Barnhart dates sacrement probably before 1200, in the Ancrene Riwle,^[2] and Etymonline places the Christian use in late Old English.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The OED explains that classical Latin sacrāmentum meant something that consecrates or binds by a religious sanction: the soldier's oath of allegiance, any solemn oath, the sum each party to a lawsuit deposited, and so a civil suit.^[5][6] From the 3rd century Christian writers used it for Greek mustḗrion, returning to the root meaning rather than to any of these uses, and applied it to any rite or symbolic act of the Church, but above all to baptism and the Eucharist.^[5][6] In English the narrower sense, the Eucharist, and the consecrated bread itself, follow in the Ancrene Riwle (about 1225).^[5][7] By about 1340 R. Rolle used the word for anything with a sacred character or function, like a pledge or seal,^[5] and the Wycliffite Bible (about 1384) for a mystery or secret, after the Latin of Tertullian and the Vulgate.^[5][6] The Latin sense of an oath or solemn engagement was taken over as a Latinism in the 15th century, in Lydgate,^[5][7] and Johnson (1755) still put "an oath" first, before "an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace".^[15] To take the sacrament on a matter, to receive Communion in confirmation of one's word, is in Shakespeare's Richard III (1597).^[5][13] In 19th-century Scotland the sacrament-time was the season when Communion was given, and in Yorkshire a sacrament-piece was a coin taken from the offertory.^[16] In American drug slang since 1969 a sacrament is a dose of LSD, from the tablet being placed on the tongue like a Communion wafer.^[17] The rare verb, to bind by an oath (1621, Laud) and to make sacred (1829, Southey), is from sacrāmentō (“to bind by an oath”).^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1175 – a solemn rite of the Christian Church.^[5]
• c. 1225 – the Eucharist; the consecrated elements, especially the bread.^[5][2]
• before 1340 – something likened to a sacrament, a sacred seal or pledge.^[5]
• c. 1384 – a mystery, something with a secret meaning.^[5][6]
• 1430–40 – an oath or solemn engagement.^[5]
• 1534 – a type, token or symbol.^[5]
• 1597 – to take the sacrament, to receive Communion to confirm one's word.^[5]
• 1621 – verb, to bind by an oath.^[5]
• 1760 – the last sacraments, given to the dying.^[5]
• 1829 – verb, to make sacred.^[5]
• 1880 – in Roman law, the pledge deposited by each party to a suit.^[5]
• 1969 – slang, LSD.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. A Christian rite regarded as an outward sign of an inward grace, such as baptism and the Eucharist in Protestant churches, or the seven sacraments of the Roman Catholic and Eastern churches.^{[18][4][5][13]}
2. (often capitalized) The Eucharist, Holy Communion.^[18][5][13]
3. The consecrated elements of the Eucharist, especially the bread or host.^[18][5][13]
4. Something regarded as having a sacred character or meaning; a sign or symbol of a deeper reality.^[4][5][13]
5. (archaic) A solemn oath or pledge.^{[7][13][5][15]}
6. In Roman law, the sum each party to a suit deposited as a pledge.^[5][13]
7. (slang) A dose of LSD.^[17]

Verb

1. (rare) To bind by an oath; to make sacred.^[5][4]

Word family

• sacramentarian
• sacramental

Related words

• sacred
• sacrifice
• consecrate
• mystery
• sacrosanct

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
15. ^ 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.
16. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
17. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
18. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins