Sacrilege Definition

săkrə-lĭj
noun
The act of appropriating to oneself or to secular use, or of violating, what is consecrated to God or religion.
Webster's New World
The intentional desecration or disrespectful treatment of a person, place, thing, or idea held sacred.
Webster's New World

Desecration, profanation, misuse or violation of something regarded as sacred.

Wiktionary

Other Word Forms of Sacrilege

Noun

Singular:
sacrilege
Plural:
sacrileges

Origin of Sacrilege

  • Circa 1300, original sense “stealing something sacred". From Old French sacrilege, from Latin sacrilegium, from sacrilegus (“sacrilegious"), from phrase sacrum legere, from sacrum (from sacer (“sacred, holy")) + legō (“gather; take, steal"), from Proto-Indo-European *sak- and Proto-Indo-European *leǵ-. Sense of “profanation" from late 14th century.

    From Wiktionary

  • Middle English from Old French from Latin sacrilegium from sacrilegus one who steals sacred things sacer sacred sacred legere to gather leg- in Indo-European roots

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

  • Unrelated to religion, which is ultimately from ligō (“I tie, bind, or bandage"), from Proto-Indo-European *leygÊ°- (“to bind").

    From Wiktionary

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