sacred
Part of speech: adj
Morphological type: derivation
Etymology: From Middle English sacred, isacred, past participle of sacren, sakeren (“to make holy, hallow”), equivalent to sacre + -ed.
Base: sacre
Affixes: -ed
Inflected forms:
form: more sacred
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: most sacred
pos: adj
tags: superlative
Senses:
gloss: Characterized by solemn religious ceremony or religious use, especially, in a positive sense; consecrated, made holy.
pos: adj
examples: a sacred place
a sacred day
sacred service
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan / A stately pleasure-dome decree: / Where Alph, the sacred river, ran / Through caverns measureless to man / Down to a sunless sea.
In doing this I particularly instructed my informant to tell his tale as if he were relating it to his own people, and to use the same words that he would use if he were recounting similar tales to them when assembled in a sacred house.
The cross is that high symbol of sacred service, the devotion of one's life to the welfare and salvation of one's fellows. The cross is not the symbol of the sacrifice of the innocent Son of God in the place of guilty sinners and in order to appease the wrath of an offended God, but it does stand forever, on earth and throughout a vast universe, as a sacred symbol of the good bestowing themselves upon the evil and thereby saving them by this very devotion of love.
The sacred is the emotional force which connects the part to the whole; the profane or the secular is that which has been broken off from, or has fallen off, its emotional bond to the universe.
November 30 2016, Joe Whittle writing in The Guardian, We opened eyes': at Standing Rock, my fellow Native Americans make history
Their intent was to march peacefully down a county road to DAPL headquarters, where tribal elders would pray and hold ceremony to bless the sacred sites being disturbed by pipeline construction.
gloss: Religious; relating to religion, or to the services of religion; not secular
pos: adj
examples: Smit with the love of sacred song.
By way of example, it would be sufficient to refer to Sabino Samele acquaviva (1971), previously known for his theory of the eclipse of the sacred, and to Harvey cox (1968), prophet of the secular city.
gloss: Spiritual; concerned with metaphysics.
pos: adj
examples: Unlike most metaphysical or philosophical naturalists who reject any supernatural beings or supernatural/sacred entities, naturalists who take the concept of the sacred seriously must answer this question: “What is the value of the sacred with respect to nature?"
In his major studies, Eliade explains the sacred and profane as “two modes of being in the world, two existential situations assumed by man in the course of history. . . . In the last analysis, the sacred and profane modes of being depend upon the different positions that man has conquered in the cosmos."
gloss: Designated or exalted by a divine sanction; possessing the highest title to obedience, honor, reverence, or veneration; entitled to extreme reverence; venerable.
pos: adj
examples: Such neighbor nearness to our sacred [royal] blood Should nothing privilege him.
Poet and saint to thee alone were given, The two most sacred names of earth and heaven.
gloss: Not to be profaned or violated; inviolable.
pos: adj
examples: Secrets of marriage still are sacred held.
The sacred project of sociology is simply to help people enjoy being fully what they are.
gloss: Consecrated; dedicated; devoted
pos: adj
examples: A temple, sacred to the queen of love.
gloss: Solemnly devoted, in a bad sense, as to evil, vengeance, curse, or the like; accursed; baleful.
pos: adj
tags: archaic
examples: But, to destruction sacred and devote.
Antonyms: cursed
damned
Related words: sacralize
Derived words: African sacred ibis
nonsacred
pseudosacred
quasi-sacred
sacred ape
sacred baboon
sacred bamboo
sacred beetle
sacred bundle
sacred cow
sacred fig
sacred fir
sacred geometry
sacred harp
sacred ibis
sacredise
sacredize
sacred kingfisher
sacred lotus
sacredly
sacredness
sacred sage
sacred theology
Sacred War
sacred way
secret-sacred
semisacred
unsacred
Translations: