# sacer
## Latin
### Etymology 1

From Old Latin sacros, sakros, from Proto-Italic *sakros (“sacred”), from Proto-Indo-European *seh₂k- (“to sanctify, to make a treaty”).

#### Pronunciation

* (Classical Latin) IPA: /ˈsa.ker/, [ˈs̠äkɛr]
* (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: /ˈsa.t͡ʃer/, [ˈsäːt͡ʃer]

#### Adjective

sacer (feminine sacra, neuter sacrum, superlative sacerrimus); first/second-declension adjective (nominative masculine singular in -er)
* sacred, holy, dedicated (to a divinity), consecrated, hallowed (translating Greek ἱερός)
** c. 200 BCE, Plautus, Menaechmi V.5.38:at ego te sacram coronam surrupuisse Iovi scioAnd I know that you stole the sacred crown of Jupiter.
* devoted (to a divinity for sacrifice), fated (to destruction), forfeited, accursed
** 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid III.56:quid non mortalia pectora cogis / auri sacra famesAccursed hunger for gold, what do you not compel the hearts of men to do!
* divine, celestial
** 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid VIII.591:extulit os sacrum caelo tenebrasque resoluitlifts to the skies his countenance divine, and melts the shadows of the night away.
** early 7th c. CE, Isidore of Seville, Etymologiae sive Origines 9.1:Tres sunt autem linguae sacrae: Hebraea, Graeca, Latina, quae toto orbe maxime excellunt.Three are the sacred languages: Hebrew, Greek and Latin, all of which distinguish themselves in the whole world.
* (only poetic and in post-Augustan prose) execrable, detestable, horrible, infamous; criminal, impious, wicked, abominable, cursed
** c. 190 BCE, Plautus, Bacchides 4.6.14:ego sum malus ego sum sacer scelestusI am a bad one, I am a cursed one—a wicked one.

##### Usage notes

The comparative form *sacrior and its inflected variants are not attested, even though the superlative sacerrimus is attested.

##### Declension

First/second-declension adjective (nominative masculine singular in -er).

##### Synonyms

* (accursed): scelestus
* (consecrated, sacred): augustus, sānctus
* (detestable): exsecrābilis, scelestus

##### Antonyms

* (antonym(s) of “holy”): dēfānātus

##### Derived terms

* sacellum
* sacer vātēs
* sacerarbōs
* sacerdōs
* sacrālis
* sacrārium
* sacrārius
* sacricola
* sacrifer
* sacrificō
* sacrilegus
* sacrima
* sacrō
* sacrōsānctus
* sacrum

##### Related terms

* sacerdōtālis
* sacerdōtium
* sacerdōtula
* sacrāmentālis
* sacrāmentum
* sacrātē
* sacrātiō
* sacrātor
* sacrificālis
* sacrificātiō
* sacrificātor
* sacrificātus
* sacrificiolus
* sacrificium
* sacrificulus
* sacrificus
* sacrilegē
* sacrilegium
* sanciō

##### Descendants

* Galician: sagro
* Italian: sacro, sagro
** → Romanian: sacru
* Sicilian: sagru, sacru
** → Maltese: sagru
* → Asturian: sacru
* → Catalan: sacre
* → Galician: sacro
* → Portuguese: sacro
* → Romanian: sacru
* → Spanish: sacro

### Etymology 2

From Proto-Italic *sākris (“sacrificial, sacred”), from Proto-Indo-European *seh₂k- (“to sanctify, to make a treaty”).

#### Pronunciation

* (Classical Latin) IPA: /ˈsaː.ker/, [ˈs̠äːkɛr]
* (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: /ˈsa.t͡ʃer/, [ˈsäːt͡ʃer]
Generally cited with a long vowel by etymological sources. Per Nishimura (2014), citing Timpanaro (1965), the only evidence of the long vowel in the first syllable is the scansion in Plautus's Rudens (below). Syllables containing short vowels before a plosive-liquid cluster such as /kr/ are not usually treated as heavy in Plautine poetry.

#### Adjective

sācer (feminine sācris, neuter sācre); third-declension three-termination adjective (uncommon)
* sacred, holy, suitable to be sacrificed (found especially as an adjective applying to the noun porcus)
** c. 200 BCE, Plautus, Menaechmi 290:responde mihi / adulescens: quibus hic pretiis porci veneunt / sacres sinceri?
** c. 211 BCE, Plautus, Rudens 1208:sunt domi agni et porci sacres.

##### Declension

Third-declension three-termination adjective.

### References

* ↑ Nishimura, Kanehiro (2014). "Vowel Lengthening in the Latin Nominal Lexicon: Innovation and Inheritance." Historische Sprachforschung / Historical Linguistics, 127, 228–248. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43857962, page 232

### Further reading

* “sacer”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
* “sacer”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
* sacer in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
* Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co. (ambiguous) ritual; ceremonial: sacra, res divinae, religiones, caerimoniae (ambiguous) to sacrifice: sacra, sacrificium facere (ἱερὰ ῥέζειν), sacrificare (ambiguous) to profane sacred rites: sacra polluere et violare
* De Vaan, Michiel (2008) Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 532