saint

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See also: Saint and SA Int

English

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Wikipedia

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

From Middle English saint, seint, sainct, seinct, sanct, senct, partly from Old English sanct (saint) and confluence with Old French saint, seinte (Modern French saint); both from Latin sānctus (holy, consecrated”, in Late Latin as a noun, “a saint), past participle of sancīre (to render sacred, make holy), akin to sacer (holy, sacred). Doublet of Sanctus. Displaced native Middle English halwe (saint) from Old English hālga (saint, holy one) (> Modern English hallow (saint)).

Noun

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia
Francis of Assisi, a Catholic saint.

saint (plural saints)

  1. (religion, generally) A deceased person whom a church or another religious group has officially recognised as especially holy or godly; one eminent for piety and virtue.
    The Roman Catholic Church proclaimed Kateri Tekakwitha a saint in 2012.
  2. (Christianity) One of the blessed in heaven.
    • 1667, John Milton, “Book VI”, in Paradise Lost. , London: [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker ; nd by Robert Boulter ; nd Matthias Walker, , →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: , London: Basil Montagu Pickering , 1873, →OCLC, lines 742–744:
      Then ſhall thy Saints unmixt, and from th' impure / Farr ſeparate, circling thy holy Mount / Unfained Halleluiahs to thee ſing,
  3. (Christianity) A Christian; a faithful believer in the present world.
  4. (Mormonism, specifically) Alternative letter-case form of Saint (a Mormon, a Latter-day Saint)
  5. (figuratively, by extension) A person with similarly overwhelming positive qualities; one who does good.
    Dorothy Day was a living saint.
    Thanks for looking after the house while I'm away. You're a saint!
  6. (archaic) A holy object.
Alternative forms
Synonyms
  • (holy person): hallow (obsolete)
Hyponyms
  • (holy person): holy man (male, nondenominational); arhat (Buddhism); sage (East Asia and philosophical sects); immortal (Taoism); wali (Islamic saint); casis (Islamic saint, historical); sultan (Turkish Sufi saint); martyr (person revered for sacrificing their life for a cause, sometimes inclusive of secular reverence by nations or political parties); confessor (Christian saints other than martyrs); san (male Christian saint in Spanish contexts, usu. as a title); santa (female Christian saint in Spanish contexts, usu. as a title); sainte (female Christian saint in French contexts, usu. as a title)
Derived terms
See also the lists of derived terms at Saint and St
Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
See also

Etymology 2

From Middle English saynten, seinten, sonten, partly from Anglo-Norman saintir and partly from the noun Middle English seint, seynt (see above).

Verb

saint (third-person singular simple present saints, present participle sainting, simple past and past participle sainted)

  1. (transitive) Synonym of canonize: to honor, formally name, or revere as a saint.
    Many Catholics wished to see Pope John Paul II sainted immediately after his death.
Translations

Etymology 3

From the pattern of naming various parishes and other places for Christian saints.

Prefix

saint

  1. (toponymy) Capitalized and placed before another term, particularly personal names, to create placename without direct association to any religious character.
Usage notes

May be used for either male or female names. May be combined with the other word using a hyphen, particularly following French examples.

Alternative forms
Coordinate terms

Further reading

Anagrams

French

Etymology

From Latin sanctus (holy).

Pronunciation

Noun

saint m (plural saints, feminine sainte)

  1. a male saint; masculine of sainte

Adjective

saint (feminine sainte, masculine plural saints, feminine plural saintes)

  1. saintly (all meanings)

Derived terms

- in Belgian toponyms:

- in Canadian toponyms:

- In French toponyms:

- In toponyms of French Guiana:

- In Guadeloupean toponyms:

- In Italian toponyms:

- In toponyms of Martinique:

- In toponyms of Réunion:

- In Swiss toponyms:

Further reading

Anagrams

Irish

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Old Irish sant, of uncertain origin; cognate with Manx saynt and Scottish Gaelic sannt. Possibly borrowed from Proto-Brythonic *hwant (the source of Welsh chwant (desire)),[2] from Proto-Celtic *swantos, provided the borrowing happened before *s became *h in Brythonic but after *ant became *ēdd in Goidelic, as the inherited Old Irish descendant of *swantos is sét (whence séad (a valuable) and seoid (jewel)). Against this hypothesis is the fact that Old Irish sét and Welsh chwant are masculine, while Old Irish sant and its descendants are feminine.

Pronunciation

Noun

saint f (genitive singular sainte)

  1. greed, avarice, covetousness
  2. great eagerness, desire

Declension

Declension of saint (second declension, no plural)
bare forms
case singular
nominative saint
vocative a shaint
genitive sainte
dative saint
forms with the definite article
case singular
nominative an tsaint
genitive na sainte
dative leis an tsaint
don tsaint

Synonyms

Derived terms

Mutation

Mutated forms of saint
radical lenition eclipsis
saint shaint
after an, tsaint
not applicable

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Modern Irish.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

References

  1. ^ saint”, in Historical Irish Corpus, 1600–1926, Royal Irish Academy
  2. ^ Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “sant”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
  3. ^ Sjoestedt, M. L. (1931) Phonétique d’un parler irlandais de Kerry [Phonetics of an Irish Dialect of Kerry] (in French), Paris: Librairie Ernest Leroux, § 195, page 98
  4. ^ Quiggin, E. C. (1906) A Dialect of Donegal, Cambridge University Press, § 110, page 43

Further reading

Norman

Etymology

From Old French saint, from Latin sanctus (holy).

Pronunciation

Adjective

saint m

  1. (Jersey) holy

Noun

saint m (plural saints)

  1. (Jersey, religion) saint

Old French

Alternative forms

Etymology

Latin sanctus

Noun

saint oblique singularm (oblique plural sainz or saintz, nominative singular sainz or saintz, nominative plural saint)

  1. saint

Declension

Case masculine feminine
singular subject sainz sainte
oblique saint sainte
plural subject saint saintes
oblique sainz saintes

Adjective

saint m (oblique and nominative feminine singular sainte)

  1. holy
  2. pious; devout

Descendants

  • English: saint
  • French: saint
  • Norman: saint (Jersey)

Welsh

Pronunciation

Noun

saint m pl (not mutable)

  1. plural of sant