Word of the Day

: June 20, 2008

sacrilegious

adjective sak-ruh-LIJ-us

What It Means

1 : committing or characterized by a technical and not necessarily intrinsically outrageous violation (as improper reception of a sacrament) of what is sacred because consecrated to God

2 : grossly irreverent toward a hallowed person, place, or thing

sacrilegious in Context

My great-grandfather was a die-hard New Dealer who considered any criticism of Franklin D. Roosevelt to be sacrilegious.

Did You Know?

It may seem that "sacrilegious" should be spelled as "sacreligious," since the word sometimes describes an irreverent treatment of religious objects or places. However, "sacrilegious" comes to us from "sacrilege," which is ultimately derived from a combination of the Latin words "sacer" ("sacred") and "legere" ("to gather" or "to steal"). Its antecedent in Latin, "sacrilegus," meant "one who steals sacred things." There is no direct relation to "religious" (which is derived from the Latin word "religiosus," itself from "religio," meaning "supernatural constraint or religious practice"). The apparent resemblance between "sacrilegious" and "religious" is just a coincidence.