Latin

Adjective

sacer m ‎(feminine sacra, neuter sacrum); first/second declension

1. Sacred, holy, dedicated to a divinity, consecrated, hallowed (translating Greek ἱερός).
   • c. 254 BCE – 184 BCE, Plautus, Menaechmi V.5.38

     at ego te sacram coronam surrupuisse Iovi scio

     And I know that you stole the sacred crown of Jupiter.

2. Devoted to a divinity for sacrifice, fated to destruction, forfeited, accursed.
   • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid III.56

     quid non mortalia pectora cogis / auri sacra fames

     Accursed hunger for gold, what do you not compel the hearts of men to do!

3. Divine, celestial.
   • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid VIII.591

     extulit os sacrum caelo tenebrasque resoluit

     lifts to the skies his countenance divine, and melts the shadows of the night away.

4. (only poetic and in post-Augustan prose) Execrable, detestable, horrible, infamous; criminal, impious, wicked, abominable, cursed.
   • c. 254 BCE – 184 BCE, Plautus, Bacchides 4.6.14

     ego sum malus ego sum sacer scelestus

     I am a bad one, I am a cursed one--a wicked one.

Inflection

First/second declension, nominative masculine singular in -er.

Synonyms

• (accursed): scelestus
• (consecrated, sacred): augustus, sānctus
• (detestable): exsecrābilis, scelestus

Antonyms

• (holy): dēfānātus

Derived terms

Related terms

Descendants

References

• sacer in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• sacer in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• Félix Gaffiot (1934), “sacer”, in Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Paris: Hachette.
• Meissner, Carl; Auden, Henry William (1894) Latin Phrase-Book, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • (ambiguous) ritual; ceremonial: sacra, res divinae, religiones, caerimoniae
    
  • (ambiguous) to sacrifice: sacra, sacrificium facere (ἱερὰ ῥέζειν), sacrificare
    
  • (ambiguous) to profane sacred rites: sacra polluere et violare
    
• De Vaan, Michiel (2008) Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, page 532