Etymograph

English

saint

Saint comes from Middle English saint, from Old French saint and Old English sanct, from Latin sānctus ‘holy’, from sanciō.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsanciōas sancīre, past participle‘to render sacred’
  2. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEsānctus‘holy; (Late Latin) a saint’
  3. Old Frenchc. 842–1400saint
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500same form
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1610same form

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsanciōas sancīre, past participle‘to render sacred’
  2. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEsānctus‘holy; (Late Latin) a saint’
  3. Old Frenchc. 842–1400saint
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500same form
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1610same form

Earliest quotation: 1610, The Second Tome of the Holie Bible, Doway: Laurence Kellam: “It is ruine to a man to deuoure ſaintes,…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *seh₂k- ‘to sanctify, to make a treaty’

consecration, sacrilege, consecrate, sacramental, 11 more

through Latin sanciō ‘to render sacred, make holy’

sanction

through Latin sānctus ‘holy, consecrated”, in Late Latin as a noun,…’

sanctuary, sanctity, santo, sanctum, sanctification, 5 more

Another origin of saint

  1. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*sanktosreconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsanctus‘venerable, august, divine, blessed, holy, saintly’
  3. Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400seint
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500seyntas seint‘a saint’
  5. Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400saintir
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500saynten
  7. Englishtodaysaint

Today it means

noun A deceased person whom a church or another religious group has officially recognised as especially holy or godly; one eminent for piety and virtue.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Latin sanciō / saint

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