sacrifice

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈsæk.rɪ.faɪs/^[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English sacrefise, sacrifice, borrowed from Old French sacrifise, sacrefise, and directly borrowed from Latin sacrificium,^[2][3][4] from sacrificus (“performing priestly functions or sacrifices”),^[2][3][5] from sacra (“sacred rites”), the neuter plural of sacer (“sacred”) (see sacred), and the combining form of facere (“to make, do”),^[2][3][6] so that it is etymologically “a making sacred”.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The offering of something, especially a life, to a deity: about 1275 in Barnhart, the late 13th century in Etymonline, before 1300 in the OED.^[2][3][7]

Semantic evolution

That which is offered, the victim, is from about 1250 in the OED and the mid-14th century in Etymonline.^[7][3] In Christian theology the offering by Christ of himself is from about 1375,^[7] and the sacrifice of praise, a biblical phrase, from 1535.^[7] The giving up of something valued for the sake of something else is first found in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (1592),^[2][7] and the verb in that sense, to surrender or suffer to be lost, from 1706.^[3] The verb meant first to offer something to a deity, about 1300.^[2][3] It drove out sacrify, from Old French sacrifier, which Ruskin, finding it in Sidney, thought the right form, like magnify and glorify.^[3] In chess, baseball and commerce a sacrifice is a deliberate loss for an advantage, such as selling goods at a loss.^[8][9]

Timeline

• c. 1250 – a victim offered.^[7]
• c. 1275 – an offering to a deity.^[2]
• c. 1300 – the verb.^[2][3]
• c. 1375 – the sacrifice of Christ.^[7]
• 1592 – giving up something valued, in Shakespeare.^[2][7]
• 1706 – the verb, to give up for something else.^[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The offering of something, especially the ritual killing of an animal or person, to a deity.
2. An animal or person offered in this way; a victim.
3. The giving up of something valued for the sake of something more important.
4. A loss accepted deliberately, as in chess or by selling at a loss.

Verb

1. To offer as a sacrifice to a deity.
2. To give up something valued for the sake of something else.
3. To sell or give away at a loss.

Word family

• sacrificer
• sacrificeable
• presacrifice
• nonsacrifice
• self-sacrifice
• unsacrificed
• self-sacrificing

Related words

• nonsacrificial
• sacred
• sacrificial
• sacrament
• sacrilege
• sacrosanct
• fact

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
9. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins