Etymology Dictionary

SACRED,  made holy, religious.  (F.,—L.)   Sacred is the pp. of M. E. sacren, to render holy, consecrate, a verb now obsolete.  We find sacreth = consecrates, in Ancren Riwle, p. 268, l. 5.   The pp. i-sacred, consecrated, occurs in Rob. of Glouc. p. 330, where the prefix i- ( = A.S. ge-) is merely the mark of the Southern dialect.   'He was...sacryd or enoynted emperoure of Rome;' Fabyan's Chron. cap. 155. last line.   [Hence too sacring-bell, Hen. VIII, iii. 2. 295.]—O.F. sacrer, 'to consecrate;' Cot.—Lat. sacrare, to consecrate.—Lat. sacr-, stem of sacer, sacred, holy—Lat. base SAC, appearing in a nasalised form in sancire, to render inviolable, establish, confirm; see Saint.   Der. sacred-ly, sacred-ness; and see sacra-ment, sacri-fice, sacri-lege, sacrist-an, sext-on; sacer-dotal; con-secrate, de-secrate, ex-ecrate, ob-secrate.