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Thursday August 20, 2009

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sacrosanct [SAK-roh-sankt]

adjective

1. Considered sacred and inviolable.

• "I'm also grateful that we live in a country where freedom of speech is a sacrosanct value, and I hope that one day we can get to know each other better, as we began to do at the White House this afternoon."
  Joseph Williams, "Over beers, a taste of what's to come; Gates, Crowley vow to meet again", Boston Globe, Jul 31, 2009
• Farm subsidies are a controversial economic tool -- and sacrosanct for politicians in the United States and Europe.
  Heather Timmons, "Off the farm; EU agriculture subsidies are spread far and wide", National Post, Jul 20, 2009
• But she did not smile. Evidently to her the spot on which Adrian sat was sacrosanct. The room was the Holy of Holies where mortal man put on immortality.
  William J. Locke (1863 - 1930) A novelist, short story writer, and playwright from Guyana. Jaffery (1915)

Origin of the Word

Sacrosanct, approximately 1601, derives from Latin sacrosanctus "protected by religious sanction," from sacrum "religious sanction" + sanctus, past particple of sancire "make sacred".