Transcript Document 7203449

Coming to you from the OED, the AHD, the MWO,
and
Betsy Williams
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language
Fourth Edition. 2000
ADJECTIVE:
1. Belonging to, derived from, or associated with a divine power;
sacred.
2. Regarded with or worthy of worship or veneration; revered: a
holy book.
3. Living according to a strict or highly moral religious or spiritual
system; saintly: a holy person.
4. Specified or set apart for a religious purpose: a holy place.
5. Solemnly undertaken; sacrosanct: a holy pledge.
6. Regarded as deserving special respect or reverence: The pursuit
of peace is our holiest quest.
7. Informal. Used as an intensive: raised holy hell over the mischief
their children did.
ETYMOLOGY: Middle English holi, from Old English halig.
See kailo- : Whole, uninjured, of good omen. From Old Norse
heill, healthy. Holy; holiday, hollyhock, from Old English
hälig, holy, sacred; hallow; Allhallowmas, Halloween, from
Old English hälgian.
Function: adjective
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English hālig;
akin to Old English hāl whole -- more at WHOLE
Date: before 12th century
1 : exalted or worthy of complete devotion as one perfect
in goodness and righteousness
2 : DIVINE <for the Lord our God is holy -- Psalms 99:9
(Authorized Version)>
3 : devoted entirely to the deity or the work of the deity <a
holy temple> <holy prophets>
4 a : having a divine quality <holy love> b : venerated as
or as if sacred <holy scripture> <a holy relic>
5 -- used as an intensive <this is a holy mess> <he was a
holy terror when he drank -- Thomas Wolfe> -- often used
in combination as a mild oath <holy smoke>
A. adj.
1. Kept or regarded as inviolate from ordinary use, and appropriated or set apart for
religious use or observance; consecrated, dedicated, sacred.
(This sense blends eventually with 3b.)
2. As applied to deities, the development of meaning has probably been: Held in religious
regard or veneration, kept reverently sacred from human profanation or defilement; hence,
Of a character that evokes human veneration and reverence; and thus, in Christian use, Free
from all contamination of sin and evil, morally and spiritually perfect and unsullied,
possessing the infinite moral perfection which Christianity attributes to the Divine
character. Cf. sense 4.
Its earlier application to heathen deities is found in ON., but app. not in OE.; in later use
(see b) it renders Latin sanctus, sacer, so applied.
3. Hence, a. Of persons: Specially belonging to, commissioned by, or devoted to God (or
so regarded): e.g. angels, the Virgin Mary, prophets, apostles, martyrs, saints, popes,
bishops, etc. the holy souls, the souls of the faithful departed, the blessed dead.
b. Of things: Pertaining to God or the Divine Persons; having their origin or sanction from
God, or partaking of a Divine quality or character. the Holy Name, the name of Jesus as an
object of formal devotion among Catholics, as in the Litany of the Holy Name and the
festival of the Holy Name of Jesus.
See also M.E.D. s.v. holi adj.2 2a.
c. More generally: Of high and reverend excellence; formerly said of things highly esteemed
for their qualities or ‘virtues’.
4. Conformed to the will of God, entirely devoted to God: in earlier times often connoting the
practice of asceticism and religious observances; now usually: Morally and spiritually
unstained; free from sinful affection; of godly character and life; sanctified, saintly;
sinless. a. Of persons.
b. Of actions, feelings, etc.
c. Used trivially: (a) with horror or the like (orig. U.S.), expressing intensity; (b) with
unfavourable implication of piety or sanctimoniousness (colloq.); (c) used with a following
word as an oath or expletive, as holy cow!, holy Moses!, holy smoke!
holy Joe: see quots.; holy terror: a person of exasperating habits or manners; holy Willie: a
hypocritically pious person.
5. a. In special collocations.
Holy Alliance: an alliance formed in 1815, after the fall of Napoleon, between the
sovereigns of Russia, Austria, and Prussia, with the professed object of uniting their
respective governments in a Christian brotherhood. Holy bone [tr. L. os sacrum: cf. Ger. das
heilige bein]: the SACRUM. holy brotherhood [tr. Sp. Santa Hermandad]: = HERMANDAD.
holy doors: in the Greek Church, the doors in the screen which separates the altar and
sanctuary from the main body of the church. holy laugh U.S., a laugh by a person in a state
of religious fervour. holy oak: an oak marking a parish boundary, at which a stoppage was
made for the reading of the Gospel for the day in the ‘beating of the bounds’ during the
Rogation days; called also gospel-oak, gospel-tree. Holy One: a holy person; used as a title of
God or Christ; one dedicated to or consecrated by God. Holy Roller (see ROLLER n.1 17b).
holy seed: the seed of some species of Artemisia, also called Wormseed.
b. In names of plants: holy basil, the common Indian species of basil, Ocimum sanctum. holy
grass, a grass of genus Hierochloe, esp. northern h. g., H. borealis (quot. 1842); also, rarely =
holy-hay; holy hay, Sainfoin; applied both to Onobrychis sativa and Medicago sativa: see
LUCERNE, SAINFOIN; holy hemp, ‘an old name for Galeopsis Ladanum’ (Miller); See also
HOLY GHOST, holy THISTLE.
c. Compar. holier in colloq. phr. holier-than-thou: characterized by an attitude of superior
sanctity. (Cf. Isaiah lxv. 5.)
B. absol. or as n.
1. That which is holy; a holy thing.
2. A holy place, sanctuary. Obs. (exc. as in 5).
3. A holy person, a saint: = HALLOW n. Obs.
4. pl. Sacred rites, devotions. Obs.
5. holy of holies. [A Hebraism, q desh haqq d sh m, rendered in Exod. xxvi. 34 ‘most holy place’,
but literally reproduced in LXX and Vulgate , sanctum sanctorum, whence in Wyclif, etc.] a.
The ‘most holy place’, the inner chamber of the sanctuary in the Jewish tabernacle and
temple, separated by a veil from the outer chamber or ‘holy place’. b. transf. The inner part
of any temple; the sanctuary or bema of a Christian church, esp. in the Greek Church; a
small recess containing a cross at the east end of a Nestorian church. c. fig. A place of
special sacredness, an innermost shrine.
6. sup. holiest, used absol. a. As a title of God or Christ.
b. = holy of holies: see 5.
C. Comb. a. adverbial, with other adjs., as holy-cruel, -proud, -wise. b. parasynthetic, as holyeyed, -minded, -rolling, -tempered, -thoughted adjs.; hence holy-mindedness, etc. c. holy-maker,
sanctifier; also holy-making, sanctification.
OED: Etymology
A native word: OE. hálig , also Northumbrian (whence northern ME.
hely), OFris. hêlech, OS. hêlag, -eg (MDu. heilech, -egh-, Du. heilig),
OHG. heilag MHG. heilec, Ger. heilig), ON. heilagr (Sw. helig, Da.
hellig):
A derivative of the adjective *hailo-, OE. hál, free from injury,
whole, hale, or of the derivative noun *hailoz-, *hailiz-, in OHG. heil,
ON. heill health, happiness, good luck, in ON. also omen, auspice.
OTeut. type *hailag-oz, the sense of which is expressed in the Gothic
of Ulfilas by weihs (but hailag, app. ‘consecrated, dedicated’, is read on
a Runic inscription generally held to be Gothic).
First Sense
• In the AHD:
•
4. Specified or set apart for a
religious purpose: a holy place.
• In the OED:
1. Kept or regarded as inviolate from
ordinary use, and appropriated or
set apart for religious use or
observance; consecrated,
dedicated, sacred. (This sense
blends eventually with 3b.)
3. b. Of things: Pertaining to God or
the Divine Persons; having their
origin or sanction from God, or
partaking of a Divine quality or
character. the Holy Name, the
name of Jesus as an object of
formal devotion among Catholics,
as in the Litany of the Holy Name
and the festival of the Holy Name
of Jesus.
Sense Two:
2. As applied to deities, the
development of meaning has
probably been: Held in religious
regard or veneration; hence, Of a
character that evokes human
veneration and reverence; and thus,
in Christian use, Free from all
contamination of sin and evil,
morally and spiritually perfect and
unsullied, possessing the infinite
moral perfection which Christianity
attributes to the Divine
character. Its earlier application to
heathen deities is found in ON., but
app. not in OE.
3. Hence, a. Of persons: Specially
belonging to, commissioned by, or
devoted to God (or so regarded):
e.g. angels, the Virgin Mary,
prophets, apostles, martyrs, saints,
popes, bishops, etc. the holy souls,
the souls of the faithful departed,
the blessed dead.
Sense Four:
OED:
4. c. Used trivially: (a) with
horror or the like (orig. U.S.),
expressing intensity;
(b) with unfavourable implication
of piety or sanctimoniousness
(colloq.);
(c) used with a following word as
an oath or expletive, as holy
cow!, holy Moses!, holy smoke!,
holy terror: a person of
exasperating habits or
manners.
AHD:
7. Informal. Used as an intensive:
raised holy hell over the
mischief their children did.
MWO:
5 -- used as an intensive <this is a
holy mess> <he was a holy
terror when he drank -Thomas Wolfe>
-- often used in combination as a
mild oath
< holy
>
From AHD:
ETYMOLOGY: Middle English holi,
from Old English halig.
From Old Norse heill, healthy.
Holy; holiday, hollyhock, from
Old English hälig, holy, sacred;
hallow; Allhallowmas, Halloween,
from Old English hälgian.
From OED:
1. A consecrated day, a religious
festival. Now usually written
HOLY-DAY.
[OE. háli dæ (dat. pl. háli da um),
found beside the uncompounded
háli dæ in two words (dat. pl. hál
um da um). In the combined form
OE. á instead of being rounded to
ME. ô, was shortened to a (cf.
HALLOW, HALLOWMAS,
HALIBUT, HALIDOM), giving
halidai, halliday, until, in the 16th
century, holy day or holy-day
became the usual form.
About the same time holiday
(holliday), with o short, being a
later combination and shortening
of holy day, rare in late ME., took
the place of the earlier haliday,
which however remained in
the northern dialects, where also
(esp. in Scotland) the uncombined
form was haly day. It is thus
difficult to divide holiday and
holy-day . Under this article are
included the combined forms
haliday, holiday; the uncombined
forms, as well as those in which
the vocalization shows that the
word was analyzed, are treated
under HOLY-DAY. But mediæval
scribes as to the combination or
separation of the elements of
compounds were so irregular, and
modern editors so uncertain, that
many ME. instances might be
placed under either article.]
All Hallow’s Eve
Shortened from All-Hallow-mass: The feast of All
Hallows or All Saints. Also attrib., as Hallowmas-day, -eve.
1389 in Eng. Gilds (1870) 60 Ye soneday be-forn halwemesse day
ALL-HALLOW
4. All Hallow Eve: the eve of All Saints. See also HALLOW-E'EN:
Shortened from All-Hallow-Even. The eve of All Hallows' or All Saints'; the last night of
October.. In the Old Celtic calendar the year began on 1st November, so that the last evening of
October was ‘old-year's night’, the night of all the witches, which the Church transformed into
the Eve of All Saints.
Etymology: ALL- E1 + hallows pl. of hallow, OE. hálga, a holy (man), a saint.
The nom. pl. hálgan passed through the forms halwen, halowen, halowe,
halowes. The gen. pl. hálgena with -tide, -day, became halwene, halwen,
halowen, hallowen, hallown, hallon, hollan, holland.]