saint

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 sanctus (“holy, consecrated”, in Late Latin as a noun, “a saint”), past participle of sancire (“to render sacred, make holy”), akin to sacer (“holy, sacred”).

• IPA^(key): /seɪnt/

  • Audio (US)

    (file)

  • Rhymes: -eɪnt
• (UK, as an unstressed, capitalised title) IPA^(key): /sən(t)/, /sɨn(t)/

saint (plural saints)

1. A person whom a church or another religious group has officially recognised as especially holy or godly; one eminent for piety and virtue.

   Kateri Tekakwitha was proclaimed a saint.

2. (figuratively, by extension) A person with 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!

3. One who is sanctified or made holy; a person who is separated unto God’s service.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Bible 1Cor. 1:2

     to the assembly of God which is at Corinth; those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place, both theirs and ours.

4. One of the blessed in heaven.
   • (Can we date this quote?) John Milton

     Then shall thy saints, unmixed, and from the impure / Far separate, circling thy holy mount, / Unfeigned hallelujahs to thee sing.

5. (archaic) A holy object.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Douay Rheims Bible, Proverbs 20:25, 1635 printing

   It is ruine to a man to deuour saints, and afterward to retract the vowes.

• (holy person): hallow (obsolete)

• hallow
• holos
• holy

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

1. (transitive) To canonize, to formally recognize someone as a saint.

   Many wish to see Pope John Paul II sainted immediately.

• saint in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• saint in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

• Astin, Insta, Santi, Sinta, Tanis, Tians, antis, insta-, sat in, satin, stain, stian, tians, tisan

From Latin sanctus (“holy”)

• IPA^(key): /sɛ̃/

• audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛ̃
• Homophones: sain, sains, saints, sein, seing, seings, seins

saint m (plural saints, feminine sainte)

1. saint

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

1. saintly (all meanings)

• “saint” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

• tians

saint f (genitive singular sainte)

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

• cíocras, gabhálacht (“avarice”)

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

• Audio (Jersey)

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saint m

1. (Jersey) holy

saint m (plural saints)

1. (Jersey, religion) saint

• sanct (rare)
• saent (rare)
• seint (common, chiefly Anglo-Norman)

Latin sanctus

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

1. saint

saint m (oblique and nominative feminine singular sainte)

1. holy
   • circa 1250, Rutebeuf, Ci encoumence la vie de Sainte Elyzabel, fille au roi de Hongrie:

     Conment hom devoit Dieu servir
     Por saint Paradix deservir

     How man should serve God
     In order to deserve Heaven

2. pious; devout

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

• IPA^(key): /sai̯nt/

saint m pl

1. plural of sant