Sunday, March 06, 2016

Today's new word--SACERDOTAL

I came across sacerdotal  in one of the letters of the church fathers, I think it was Irenaeus. This is another word I've seen many times, was sort of confused about the meaning and had no idea how to pronounce because in English, the C has no sound of its own--it is either an S sound or a K sound.  So yes, it is the S--as in sassy.  So just picture this as Saserdotal, and you've got it.  And the root is in so many words.  
From the Merriam Webster web site: "Sacerdotal is one of a host of English words derived from the Latin adjective sacer, meaning "sacred." Other words derived from "sacer" include "desecrate," "sacrifice," "sacrilege," "consecrate," "sacrament," and even "execrable" (developed from the Latin word exsecrari, meaning "to put under a curse"). One unlikely "sacer" descendant is "sacrum," referring to the series of five vertebrae in the lower back connected to the pelvis. In Latin this bone was called the "os sacrum," or "holy bone," a translation of the Greek hieron osteon."

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