sagrado

Forms

sagrado (feminine sagrada, masculine plural sagrados, feminine plural sagradas)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin sacrātus (“consecrated, holy”), the past participle of sacrō (“to consecrate”), which is formed from sacer (“sacred, holy”).^[2][3][4][1] Corominas notes that the words of this family in Spanish have a semi-learned form, and thinks the adjective itself is probably one of them.^[2] Berceo also used the verb sagrar (“to consecrate”), which has left no other trace in Castilian but occurs in Old Galician.^[2]

The same Latin participle is Portuguese sagrado, Catalan sagrat, Occitan sagrat and Italian sagrato.^[5][6]

The Latin adjective goes back to Proto-Italic *sakros and Proto-Indo-European *sh₂krós (“sacred”), built on a root meaning “to make sacred”.^[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Berceo's Milagros de Nuestra Señora, of 1220–1250, speak of the consecrated host, la ostia sagrada, and of el monte sagrado, “the holy mountain”.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

In the prose of Alfonso X the word meant both “dedicated by rite to divine worship”, of churches and holy places, and “venerable because of its link with the divine”, of relics.^[8] Corominas finds it in common use in every period.^[2] Autoridades in 1739 gave the same two senses and added a transferred one, “worthy of respect because of its use or purpose”.^[9] The Academy's dictionaries of the 19th century also recorded, after Latin, “accursed, detestable”, and the ancient use of the word for whatever human means could hardly reach, such as incurable diseases.^[10][11]

As a noun, sagrado named a place, usually a church, where people pursued by the law could take refuge; the phrase acogerse a sagrado “to take sanctuary” came to mean escaping a difficulty by shielding oneself behind someone's authority.^[4][10][12] A record from Yucatán in 1562 speaks of a suicide buried fuera de sagrado, outside consecrated ground.^[13] Today the adjective is also used of anything one holds inviolable.^[4]

Timeline

• 1220–1250 – Berceo writes of la ostia sagrada and el monte sagrado.^[2][3]
• 1256–1300 – Alfonso X's Siete Partidas call some places religiosos & sagrados.^[8]
• 1270–1284 – the Estoria de España speaks of reliquias sagradas.^[8]
• 1562 – the first records from the Americas, in Puebla and Yucatán.^[13]
• 1591 – Percyvall glosses the word as English “holy” and Latin sacer.^[14]
• 1739 – Autoridades defines the adjective in three senses.^[9]
• 1817 – the Academy records the noun for a place of asylum for offenders.^[10]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology from Latin sacratus.^[11]

Meanings

Adjective

1. sacred, holy: worthy of veneration because divine or connected with the divine.^[4][1]
2. Worshipped because of its link with supernatural powers.^[4]
3. Of or relating to divine worship: un texto sagrado.^[4][12]
4. Deserving the deepest respect.^[4]
5. Not to be given up or changed; inviolable: Para él la siesta es sagrada.^[4]

Noun

1. (historical) A place, usually a church, that by privilege gave sanctuary to people pursued by the law; also figurative.^[4][12]

Word family

• sagrario
• sacratísimo

Related words

• sacro
• consagrar
• sacramento
• sacristán
• Latin sacer
• Portuguese sagrado

Usage notes

The phrase acogerse a sagrado meant “to take sanctuary” and now means to escape a difficulty by sheltering behind some protection.^[4][15] In Leonese, sagrado also names the church porch, the church itself, the cemetery, or the walled ground around a church.^[16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 127
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. sagrado
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. sagrado
5. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. sagrado
6. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2014), Lexicón etimológico y semántico del latín y de las voces actuales que proceden de raíces latinas o griegas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 699
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b c Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. sagrado
9. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 18
10. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 779
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 951
12. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. sagrado
13. ^ a b Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. sagrado
14. ^ Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins, p. 210
15. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. sagrado
16. ^ Le Men Loyer, Janick (2002–2012), Léxico del leonés actual, 4 vols., León: Centro de Estudios e Investigación San Isidoro; electronic version, Universidad de León, p. s.v. sagrado