Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “sacrilege” come from?

Sacrilege comes from Old French sacrilege, from Latin sacrilegium, formed from Latin sacer (sacred) and lego (to gather or steal), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European roots meaning sacred and to collect.

sacrilege (English): Desecration, profanation, misuse or violation of...

Definitions

  1. Desecration, profanation, misuse or violation of...

Ancestry of “sacrilege”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Old Frenchsacrilegesacrilege
2LatinsacrilegiumThe robbing of a temple, stealing of sacred...
3LatinsacrilegusThat steals sacred things or robs a temple;...
4Latin-legusForms adjectives related to the concept of...
5Latin-ussuffix forming adjectives from nouns, verbs,...
6Old Latin-osaccusative masculine plural of -us
7Proto-Italic-os—
8Proto-Indo-European-ósCreates agent nouns from verb stems, denoting...

Words derived from “sacrilege”

  • sacrilegist
Every word from Proto-Indo-European -ós →