sacrosanct
adjective
Pronunciation
SAK-roh-sankt
Definition
1 : most sacred or holy : inviolable
2 : treated as if holy : immune from criticism or violation
Did You Know?
That which is sacrosanct is doubly sacred. Sacrosanct is derived from the Latin sacrosanctus, which is probably from the phrase sacro sanctus ("hallowed by a sacred rite"). The first element of this phrase, sacro, is the ablative case of sacrum ("a sacred rite") and means "by a sacred rite" (sacrum lives on in English anatomy as the name for our pelvic vertebrae—a shortening of os sacrum, which literally means "holy bone"). The second element, sanctus, is the past participle of the Latin sancire, which means "to make sacred." Sanctus has also given English the words saint, sanctimony, sanctify, and sanctuary.
Examples
"Cowperwood's private office … was a solid cherry-wood box in which he could shut himself completely—sight-proof, sound-proof. When the door was closed it was sacrosanct." — Theodore Dreiser, The Titan, 1914
"The launch of Elon Musk's Falcon Heavy from the Kennedy Space Center … was the latest in a series of milestones reviving interest in space. It happened on the sacrosanct stretch of sand along the Florida coast that has witnessed so many epic flights out of the atmosphere." — Christian Davenport, The Washington Post, 11 Feb. 2018
Name That Antonym
Fill in the blanks to complete an antonym of sacrosanct: _ n _ _ ns _ _ r _ _ ed.
Merriam-Webster
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