sanction

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English sanccion,^[2][3] borrowed from Middle French sanction^[3][4][5][1] or directly borrowed from Latin sānctiō (“the act of decreeing; a decree, ordinance”),^[3][5][4][6] beside Medieval Latin sanxio.^[2] The Latin noun is formed on sānctus, the past participle of sanciō (“to make sacred or inviolable; to decree, ratify”),^[5][6][4][3] which the Shorter Oxford derives from a variant of the base of sacer (“sacred”).^[7] It is related to saint, sacred and sanctify.^[6][8][4] The OED finds the French word from the 16th century, in the sense of ecclesiastical ordinances.^[5] The verb, from 1778, is formed from the noun;^[5][7][6] the OED compares French sanctionner, from the 18th century.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Confirmation or enactment of a law, in a translation of Higden's Polychronicon probably made before 1425,^[3][2] and an ecclesiastical decree, in about 1450.^[2] The OED's first record, in John Foxe's Actes and Monumentes (1570), is "a law or decree, especially an ecclesiastical one",^[5] and Etymonline dates the word to the 1560s.^[6]

Semantic evolution

In law the word came to mean the penalty enacted to enforce a law (before 1634),^[5][3][6] later also the rewards for obeying it (1692),^[5] and the clause of a law that states the penalty (1651).^[5] Ben Jonson used it in 1611 for something that makes an oath binding.^[5][9] In ethics, from 1681, it meant a motive for obeying a moral or religious law,^[5] and Bentham's "moral sanction" is the knowledge of how one's neighbours will take an act.^[6] The sense "solemn ratification of a law" is recorded from 1658,^[5] and Johnson (1755) defined the word as the act of confirmation that gives a thing its binding force.^[9] The sense "authoritative permission" appears in Pope's Iliad (1720), and the looser "approval or encouragement" in Swift (1738).^[5][3][6] The modern political sense, coercive economic or military measures taken by states against another, is recorded from 1919, in Shaw,^[5][6] though Barnhart finds it in 1845.^[3] The verb followed the same path: "to ratify" in Jefferson (1778), "to permit, authorize" in Ann Radcliffe (1797), "to enforce by a penalty" (1825) and "to impose sanctions on, penalize" (1956).^[5][6][3] In 1980s spy fiction a sanction was also permission to kill a person, or such a killing.^[5]

Timeline

• before 1425 – confirmation or enactment of a law.^[3][2]
• 1570 – a law or decree, especially an ecclesiastical one.^[5]
• 1611 – something that makes an oath binding.^[5]
• before 1634 – the penalty attached to breaking a law.^[5][3]
• 1658 – ratification by a supreme authority.^[5]
• 1681 – in ethics, a motive for obeying a law or rule.^[5]
• 1720 – authoritative permission.^[5][3]
• 1738 – approval or encouragement.^[5][3]
• 1778 – verb, to ratify, make valid or binding.^[5][3][4]
• 1797 – verb, to permit, authorize.^[5][3]
• 1919 – coercive economic or military measures against a state.^[5][6]
• 1956 – verb, to impose sanctions on, penalize.^[5][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. Official permission or approval; authorization: The council gave its sanction to the new market.^[10][4][5]
2. Support or encouragement given to an opinion or practice, as by custom or public approval.^[10][5]
3. A penalty laid down for breaking a law or rule.^[10][4][5]
4. (often in the plural) A coercive measure, such as a trade embargo, taken by one or more states against another, usually to make it obey international law.^[10][5]
5. Something, such as a moral principle, that gives binding force to a rule or an oath.^[10][4][5]
6. A formal decree, especially an ecclesiastical one; now historical.^[4][5][7]

Verb

1. To give official permission for; to authorize or approve: The board refused to sanction the merger.^[10][4][5]
2. To make valid or binding; to ratify or confirm.^[10][4][5]
3. To impose a sanction or penalty on.^[10][5]

Word family

• sanctionable
• sanctionative
• sanctioner
• sanctionless
• nonsanction
• resanction
• nonsanctioned
• unsanctioned

Related words

• saint
• sacred
• sanctify
• sanctity
• sanctuary

Usage notes

Etymonline notes that the verb's sense "to impose a penalty on" (1956) seems to contradict its sense "to permit", but goes back to an old legal sense of the noun, the penalty attached to a law.^[6] Collins lists both senses of the verb side by side.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 33 34 35 36 37 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ 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.
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins