sanctity

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English saunctite, also sauntite,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French sainteté, also saincteté and saintité,^[2][5][3] partly reinforced by or directly from Latin sānctitās (“holiness, sacredness”),^[6][7][8] from sānctus (“holy”) and the suffix -itās.^[5][9] The Anglo-Norman noun is recorded from the first half of the 12th century, meaning holiness and also used as a papal form of address.^[10] Weekley takes the English spelling as restored from the Middle English form after the Latin.^[11] According to Ayto, the Latin adjective began as the past participle of sanciō (“to consecrate”), a verb from the same base as sacer, the source of sacred.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Holiness, saintliness of life: about 1390, in the Middle English Dictionary and Barnhart,^[2][3] and about 1394 in the OED, whose first quotation is from Pierce Ploughman's Crede.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The first sense belonged to persons: the holiness of a saintly life.^[5][4] In the early 17th century the word spread to the sacred character of a thing or an institution; the OED's first quotation is from the King James Bible of 1611, while Etymonline dates the use by about 1600, and in reference to things like marriage, the home and life it came to mean inviolability.^[5][4] Johnson (1755) gave "holiness", "goodness" and a holy being, quoting Milton for the last.^[13] The plural had meant qualities of holiness since 1600, in Shakespeare,^[5][6] while from 1815, in Wordsworth, it also meant sacred obligations, feelings or objects.^[5][6] Two uses stayed rare: a papal title in the manner of holiness, from 1633,^[5][6] and the rank of a canonized saint, from 1855.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1390 – holiness of life, saintliness.^[2][3][5]
• 1600 – plural, qualities of holiness.^[5]
• 1611 – the quality of being sacred or hallowed; inviolability.^[5][4]
• 1633 – a title used like holiness (rare).^[5]
• 1815 – plural, sacred obligations, feelings or objects.^[5]
• 1855 – the rank of a canonized saint (rare).^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Holiness of life and character; saintliness: a monk famed for his sanctity.^[14][9][5]
2. The quality of being sacred or inviolable: the sanctity of an oath.^[14][9][5]
3. Something regarded as sacred; in the plural, sacred obligations, feelings or principles.^[14][9][5]

Word family

• nonsanctity
• unsanctity

Related words

• saint
• sanctify
• sanctimonious
• sanctuary
• sanctum
• sanction
• sacred
• sacrifice

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins