sacrossanto

Forms

sacrossanto (feminine sacrossanta, masculine plural sacrossantos, feminine plural sacrossantas)^[1] The older spelling is sacrosanto, the form of the first record and of Cunha's 17th-century date;^[2] Bluteau and Morais head the word so.^[3][4][5][2] Houaiss also records sacrosàncto in 1858.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin sacrōsānctus (“protected from violation by a religious sanction, inviolable”), first recorded before 1580.^[3][4][1][6] The same Latin adjective is Spanish sacrosanto, Italian sacrosanto, Catalan sacrosant and French sacro-saint.^[1][7]

The OLD takes the Latin word as probably the ablative of sacer (“sacred”) joined to sānctus (“consecrated, holy”).^[8] Lewis & Short note that it was sometimes written apart, and even divided by tmesis, as in Pliny.^[9] Wiktionary traces both parts to Proto-Indo-European *seh₂k- (“to make a pact; to make sacred”).^[1] It was a word of Roman law and religion: Livy uses it of the magistrates the plebs were granted, whose persons could not be touched.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's first record, from before 1580, is spelt sacrosanto and has the sense "holy and sacred".^[3] Bluteau's dictionary (1712–1728) glosses sacrosanto "sacred and holy" and explains that Cicero and Livy gave the title to things that in their religion could not be profaned without the penalty of death; his examples are Este Templo da Virgem Sacrosanta "this temple of the most holy Virgin", from Galhegos's Templo da Memoria, and O Sacrosanto sello da Religião "the sacrosanct seal of religion".^[5]

Semantic evolution

The word stayed in the language of religion and of solemn style, as an intensive of santo and sagrado: Houaiss and Priberam describe it as "doubly holy".^[3][10] The second sense, "that may not be violated", follows the Roman legal use, and modern dictionaries extend it to anything treated as untouchable or beyond question.^[3][11][12] Morais (1789) still repeats Bluteau's two quotations.^[2]

Timeline

• before 1580 – first record, spelt sacrosanto.^[3]
• 17th century – Cunha's date for sacrosanto.^[4]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau enters sacrosanto with the Roman legal sense.^[5]
• 1789 – Morais copies Bluteau's quotations.^[2]
• 1858 – the spelling sacrosàncto.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Both sacred (sagrado) and holy; doubly holy: as relíquias sacrossantas da igreja.^[3][12][10]
2. inviolable; that may not be violated or questioned: um princípio sacrossanto.^{[3][11][13][1]}
3. Recognised as sacred.^[12]

Related words

• sacro
• santo
• sagrado
• Latin sacrōsānctus
• Spanish sacrosanto

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 365
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. sacrossanto
4. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. sacrossanto
5. ^ a b c Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. sacrosanto
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. sacrossanto
7. ^ 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. sacrosanto
8. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. sacrōsanctus
9. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. sacrosanctus
10. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. sacrossanto
11. ^ a b Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. sacrossanto
12. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. sacrossanto
13. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 8231