To save this word, you'll need to log in. Sacrilegious is often used in reference to religion, or to religious things, so it is easy to see why people might be confused by its spelling. However, sacrilegious and religious are not from the same roots. The earliest sense of sacrilege , in use since the beginning of the 14th century, was concerned with the theft, misuse, or desecration of sacred or holy things. It still is used in this sense quite often, but has also taken on a broader meaning, in which it refers to irreverence to a person, place, or thing which may or may not have religious significance.
Personal sacrilege
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In this respect, sacrilege as it may seem, Netanyahu may actually most closely resemble Yitzhak Rabin. His gesture is so bold it has a whiff of sacrilege , not just of art-world rebellion. The alternative—burning gas over fake logs—seems a sacrilege. OK, well maybe we do agree with the latter view; that sort of extreme flavoring can veer dangerously close to sacrilege. It comes to them as the gifts of gods and sages, which it would be sacrilege to reject. It was wicked to cough in church, as it was a sacrilege to play with a hymn-book. Or was the fear genuine, and the delight the greater: a sort of sacrilege? But thy people burn thy marbles for lime, and three centuries of this sacrilege will destroy all sign of thy nobleness. Sacrilege to pluck fruit-tree blossom—soft, sacred, young blossom—and throw it away! It may seem like fun and games but this quiz that uses vocab from popular stories will determine how much you know.
Derived forms of sacrilege
Please help support the mission of New Advent and get the full contents of this website as an instant download. Latin sacrilegium , robbing a temple, from sacer , sacred, and legere , to purloin. Sacrilege is in general the violation or injurious treatment of a sacred object. In a less proper sense any transgression against the virtue of religion would be a sacrilege. Theologians are substantially agreed in regarding as sacred that and that only which by a public rite and by Divine or ecclesiastical institution has been dedicated to the worship of God.
Sacrilege is the violation or injurious treatment of a sacred object, site or person. This can take the form of irreverence to sacred persons, places, and things. When the sacrilegious offence is verbal, it is called blasphemy , and when physical, it is often called desecration. In a less proper sense, any transgression against what is seen as the virtue of religion would be a sacrilege, and so is coming near a sacred site without permission. The term "sacrilege" originates from the Latin sacer , meaning sacred, and legere , meaning to steal. In Roman times it referred to the plundering of temples and graves. By the time of Cicero , sacrilege had adopted a more expansive meaning, including verbal offences against religion and undignified treatment of sacred objects. Most ancient religions have a concept analogous to sacrilege, often considered as a type of taboo. The basic idea is that realm of sacrum or haram stands above the world of profanum and its instantiations, see the Sacred—profane dichotomy. With the advent of Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire, the Emperor Theodosius criminalized sacrilege in an even more expansive sense, including heresy , schism , and offenses against the emperor, such as tax evasion.
