sacrare

Forms

sacrare (first-person singular present sàcro, first-person singular past historic sacrài, past participle sacràto, auxiliary avére)^[1] The old form sagrare is recorded beside it.^[2][3] An old past participle without ending, sacro, is also found.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin sacrō (“to consecrate, dedicate”).^[6][7][4][2] Zingarelli and the GDLI call it a learned word, while Wiktionary treats it as inherited.^[8][5][1] That verb is from Latin sacer (“sacred”), the source of Italian sacro.^{[4][9][10][6]}

The same Latin verb gave Old Occitan sagrar, Catalan sagrar, Spanish sagrar and Portuguese sagrar, and the learned French sacrer.^[11][12] Behind the Latin verb de Vaan sets Proto-Italic *sakrāje- (“to dedicate, sacrifice”), from *sakro- (“sacred”), and Proto-Indo-European *sh₂k-ro- (“sacred”).^[13] The Oscan verb forms meaning “to sanctify, dedicate” come from the same Proto-Italic verb.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

Zingarelli dates the first record to about 1261 and the DEI to the 13th century;^{[8][2][7][6][4]} GRADIT gives before 1342, and Nocentini and Devoto–Oli the first half of the 14th century.^{[8][2][7][6][4]} The sense then was to dedicate something to a deity or offer it as a vow.^[6][7]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the verb, often in the form sagrare, was used of the consecration of a church, a chapel or an altar with a solemn rite;^[5] Cavalca tells of a church that was to be consecrated thirty days later (fattala sagrare).^[5] Petrarch offers his thoughts, wit and style to the Virgin with Vergine, i' sacro.^[14] The verb also meant to offer as a sacrifice, a sense now obsolete.^[8][14][1]

Treccani notes that the literary verb mostly refers to the rites of Greek and Roman religion, and only rarely, in older use, to Christian consecration.^[3] In Guarini a speaker will offer a goat to Pan and a bullock to Hercules.^[3] By extension it came to mean to dedicate solemnly to the memory of heroes or great deeds, as in Foscolo's lines on Marathon, where Athens dedicated tombs to its brave.^[7][3][8] Tommaseo judged it fit not only for verse but also for learned and historical prose.^[15]

In popular speech, mainly in the form sagrare, the verb came to mean to swear or blaspheme;^[4][9][8] Devoto–Oli dates this variant to the early 18th century.^[4][9][8] The reflexive sacrarsi means to devote oneself or one's life to someone or something.^[8][9][3]

Timeline

• c. 1261 – First record according to Zingarelli.^[8]
• Before 1342 – GRADIT's first dated record of sacrare.^[7]
• Early 18th century – The variant sagrare is recorded in the sense “to swear, blaspheme”.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. (literary, transitive) To consecrate or dedicate to a deity; to offer as a vow.^[7][4][3][1]
2. (ecclesiastical, dated) To consecrate a church, chapel or altar with a solemn rite.^[5][3]
3. (literary, by extension) To dedicate solemnly in memory or honour of someone or something: Foscolo's in Maratona, / ove Atene sacrò tombe a' suoi prodi.^[7][8][9]
4. (obsolete) To offer as a sacrifice.^[8][14][1]
5. (popular, intransitive) To swear, curse, blaspheme.^[4][9][8][1]
6. (literary, reflexive: sacrarsi) To devote oneself, dedicate one's life to someone or something.^[8][9][14]

Word family

• sacrato

Related words

• sacro
• consacrare
• sacrario
• sagrare
• Latin sacrō

Usage notes

GRADIT lists a second sacrare, intransitive and transitive, as a variant of sagrare “to curse, blaspheme”, which it derives from sagro, an old variant of sacro, with the verb ending -are, and dates before 1708.^[7] Treccani likewise gives a separate sacrare as a less common variant of sagrare.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
6. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
9. ^ a b c d e f g Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
10. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
12. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
13. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
14. ^ a b c d Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
15. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET