sacrament

sacrament

English

Etymology

From Middle English sacrament, from Old French sacrement, from Ecclesiastical Latin sacrāmentum (“sacrament”), from Latin sacrō (“hallow, consecrate”), from sacer (“sacred, holy”), originally sum deposited by parties to a suit.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsækɹəmənt/

  • Audio (UK)

    (file)

Noun

sacrament (plural sacraments)

1. (Christianity) A sacred act and the attendant ceremony, considered (theology) an outward sign of divine grace.
   • 1989 February 10, Stephen Fry & al., "Christening" A Bit of Fry and Laurie, Season 1, Episode 5:

     Priest: I'm sorry, it's Duncan Dirk Dick. I've just done it. / Father: Well, undo it. / Priest: Undo it? / Father: Yes. / Priest: This is a holy sacrament of the Church, not a bleeding hotel reservation. You can't just undo it.

2. (in particular) The Eucharist.
3. The consecrated Eucharist (especially the bread).
4. (by extension) A thing which is regarded as possessing a sacred character or mysterious significance.
   • 1651, Jer[emy] Taylor, “[XXVIII Sermons Preached at Golden Grove; Being for the Summer Half-year, […].] Sermon IX. The Faith and Patience of the Saints: Or The Righteous Cause Oppressed.”, in ΕΝΙΑΥΤΟΣ [Eniautos]. A Course of Sermons for All the Sundays of the Year. […], 2nd edition, London: […] Richard Royston […], published 1654, OCLC 1051524189, page 105:

     God ſometimes ſent a light of fire, and pillar of a cloud, and the brightneſſe of an Angel, and the luſtre of a ſtar, and the ſacrament of a rainbovve to guide his people thorovv their portion of ſorrovvs, and to lead them through troubles to reſt: […]

   • 2022 May 30, Rebecca Solnit, “US mass shootings will continue until the majority can overrule the minority”, in The Guardian‎:

     The dots are easy to connect, because they’re so close together, and because they’re the entry and exit wounds inflicted on US society by the subculture whose sacrament is the gun.

5. (Ancient Rome) The oath of allegiance taken by soldiers in Ancient Rome; hence, any sacred ceremony used to impress an obligation; a solemn oath-taking; an oath.
   • c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s VVell, that Ends VVell”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act IV, scene iii]:

     I'll take the sacrament on 't.

Translations

sacred act or ceremony

Armenian: խորհուրդ (hy) (xorhurd) Bulgarian: тайнство (bg) n (tajnstvo) Catalan: sagrament (ca) m Chinese: Mandarin: 聖事／圣事 (zh) (shèngshì), 聖禮／圣礼 (zh) (shènglǐ) Chuukese: sakramen Corsican: sacramentu m Czech: svátost (cs) f Danish: sakramente n Dutch: sacrament (nl) n Esperanto: sakramento Estonian: sakrament, salasus Finnish: sakramentti (fi) French: sacrement (fr) m Friulian: sacrament m Galician: sacramento (gl) m Georgian: ზიარება (ziareba) German: Sakrament (de) n Greek: μυστήριο (el) n (mystírio) Hungarian: szentség (hu) Ido: sakramento (io) Indonesian: sakramen (id) Interlingua: sacramento Italian: sacramento (it) m Korean: 성사 (ko) (seongsa) Latin: sacrāmentum n Low German: Sakrament n; Sakramänt n (Paderbornisch), Sakramänte n (Sauerländisch) Macedonian: све́та та́јна f (svéta tájna) Maori: hākarameta Norman: sacrément m Norwegian: Bokmål: sakrament n Nynorsk: sakrament n Plautdietsch: Sakrament n Polish: sakrament (pl) m Portuguese: sacramento (pt) m Romagnol: please add this translation if you can Romanian: sacrament (ro) n Russian: та́инство (ru) n (táinstvo), сакрамент (ru) m (sakrament) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: сакра̀мент m Roman: sakràment (sh) m Spanish: sacramento (es) m Swedish: sakrament (sv) n Tagalog: galimbanal, sakramento Turkish: kutsantı Vietnamese: bí tích

Verb

sacrament (third-person singular simple present sacraments, present participle sacramenting, simple past and past participle sacramented)

1. (transitive) To bind by an oath.

See also

• Catholic and Eastern churches have seven sacraments: baptism; confirmation; communion, Mass, or Eucharist; penance; extreme unction (Anointing of the Sick, last rites); holy orders / ordination; and matrimony.
• Protestant churches list two sacraments: baptism and Lord's Supper.
• Eucharistic liturgy
• Holy Eucharist
• Holy Sacrament
• Liturgy
• Lord's Supper
• sacrament on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

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Dutch

Etymology

From Old French sacrament, from Ecclesiastical Latin sacrāmentum (“sacrament”), from Latin sacrō (“hallow, consecrate”), from sacer (“sacred, holy”), originally sum deposited by parties to a suit.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌsaː.kraːˈmɛnt/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: sa‧cra‧ment
• Rhymes: -ɛnt

Noun

sacrament n (plural sacramenten)

1. (Christianity) sacrament

Derived terms

• laatste sacramenten
• sacramenteel
• sacramentsaltaar
• Sacramentsdag

Descendants

• Negerhollands: sacrament
• → Indonesian: sakramen

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Romanian

Etymology

From French sacrement, from Latin sacramentum.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sa.kraˈment/

Noun

sacrament n (plural sacramente)

1. sacrament

Declension

Declension of sacrament

	singular		plural
	indefinite articulation	definite articulation	indefinite articulation	definite articulation
nominative/accusative	(un) sacrament	sacramentul	(niște) sacramente	sacramentele
genitive/dative	(unui) sacrament	sacramentului	(unor) sacramente	sacramentelor
vocative	sacramentule		sacramentelor

Further reading

• sacrament in DEX online - Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language)