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Webster 1913 Edition


Sanctum

Sanc′tum

,
Noun.
[L., p. p. of
sancire
to consecrate.]
A sacred place; hence, a place of retreat; a room reserved for personal use;
as, an editor’s
sanctum
.
Sanctum sanctorum
[L.]
,
the Holy of Holies; the most holy place, as in the Jewish temple.

Definition 2024


sanctum

sanctum

English

Noun

sanctum (plural sanctums)

  1. A place set apart, as with a sanctum sanctorum; a sacred or private place; a private retreat or workroom.
    • 1848, Charlotte Bronte, chapter 17, in Jane Eyre:
      For myself, I had no need to make any change; I should not be called upon to quit my sanctum of the schoolroom; for a sanctum it was now become to me, – "a very pleasant refuge in time of trouble."
    • 2016 February 20, “Obituary: Antonin Scalia: Always right”, in The Economist:
      His colleagues quailed when, in 1986, he first sat on the court as a brash 50-year-old whose experience had been mostly as a combative government lawyer: a justice who, in that sanctum of columns and deep judicial silence, was suddenly firing questions like grapeshot.

Latin

Adjective

sānctum

  1. nominative neuter singular of sānctus
  2. accusative masculine singular of sānctus
  3. accusative neuter singular of sānctus
  4. vocative neuter singular of sānctus