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Word of the Day Archive
Friday December 16, 2005

sacrosanct \SAK-roh-sankt\ , adjective:
1. Extremely sacred or inviolable.
2. Not to be entered or trespassed upon.
3. Above or beyond criticism, change, or interference.

The family was viewed as sacrosanct: divorce was highly unusual and children were expected to be grateful for the sacrifices that parents, who postponed their own gratifications in forming a family, made on their behalf.
-- Alan Wolfe, One Nation, After All

Espionage is about redefining Good and Evil, the violable and the sacrosanct.
-- Edward Shirley, Know Thine Enemy

A single tree
With sinuous trunk, boughs exquisitely wreathed,
Grew there; an ash which Winter for himself
Decked out with pride, and with outlandish grace
-- Mary McNamara, "TV: It's good for you", The Prelude, Book VI, "Cambridge and the Alps", August 16, 2009

Sacrosanct comes from Latin sacrosanctus, "consecrated with religious ceremonies, hence holy, sacred," from sacrum, "religious rite" (from sacer, "holy") + sanctus, "consecrated," from sancire, "to make sacred by a religious act."

Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for sacrosanct