The opposite of holy is sinful or wicked; that of sacred is secular, profane, or common. [Century Dictionary, 1895] Holy has been used as an intensifying word from 1837; in expletives since 1880s (such as holy smoke, 1883, holy mackerel, 1876, holy cow, 1914, holy moly etc.), ...
Holyhas been used as an intensifying word from 1837; in expletives since 1880s (such asholy smoke, 1883,holy mackerel, 1876,holy cow, 1914,holy molyetc.), most of them euphemisms forholy Christorholy Moses.Holy Ghostwas in Old English (in Middle English often written as one word).Holy...
But it also meant that the people would henceforth require explainers, who could translate between the unchanging holy Hebrew and the mundane but living Aramaic (Nehemiah 8:8). And this is how the Rabbinical Period started. The people's adoption of popular Aramaic made Hebrew a holy language,...
The digraph <ow> occurs in the initial, medial, and final position of a base element : owl, crown, howl, cow. Yet when the digraph represents /əʊ/ as in mow /məʊ/ the digraph is frequently located in the final position. I have found very few words where it occurs ...
1600. The transferred sense of "entitled to respect or reverence" is from 1550s. Sacred cow as an object of Hindu veneration is by 1793; its figurative sense of "one who or that which must not be criticized" is in use by 1910 in U.S. journalism, reflecting Western views of Hinduism....
The adjectives also were used as nouns in Late Latin and Old French: "a saint; a holy relic." The Latin word also is the source of Spanishsanto,santa, Italiansan, etc., and also ultimately the source of the word in most Germanic languages (Old Frisiansankt, Dutchsint, GermanSanct). ...
"heifer, young cow that has not had a calf," Scottish and Northern English dialect, late… See origin and meaning of quey.
"divest of sacred character, treat with sacrilege," 1670s, fromde-"do the opposite of" + stem ofconsecrate. Old French haddessacrer"to profane," and there is a similar formation in Italian; but Latindesecraremeant "to make holy," withde-in this case having a completive sense. Related...
Yet I suspect that this flower-and-butterfly minuteness was also a product of "rationalization," which transformed the glamour of Elfland into mere finesse, and invisibility into a fragility that could hide in a cowslip or shrink behind a blade of grass. It seems to become fashionable soon ...
The adjectives also were used as nouns in Late Latin and Old French: "a saint; a holy relic." The Latin word also is the source of Spanishsanto,santa, Italiansan, etc., and also ultimately the source of the word in most Germanic languages (Old Frisiansankt, Dutchsint, GermanSanct). ...