saint

• IPA^(key): /seɪnt/

  • Audio (US)

    (file)

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

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”). Displaced native Middle English halwe (“saint”) from Old English hālga (“saint, holy one”) (> Modern English hallow (“saint”)).

Francis of Assisi, a Catholic saint.

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.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Corinthians 1:2:

     Unto the Church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Iesus, called to be Saints, with all that in euery place call vpon the Name of Iesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours.

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 of the blessed in heaven.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book VI”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], →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,

4. (archaic) A holy object.
   • 1610, The Second Tome of the Holie Bible, […] (Douay–Rheims Bible), Doway: Lavrence Kellam, […], →OCLC, Proverbes 20:25, page 299:

     It is ruine to a man to deuoure ſaintes, and afterward to retracte the vowes.

• (holy person): hallow (obsolete)

• hallow
• holos
• holy

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

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.

From the pattern of naming various places for Saints from religion.

saint

1. (toponymy) A prefix attached to another term, used to create placenames. The resultant placename need not be associated with any religious saint character.

• saint in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• “saint”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

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

From Latin sanctus (“holy”).

• IPA^(key): /sɛ̃/, (in liaison) /sɛ̃.t‿/

• audio

  (file)

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

saint m (plural saints, feminine sainte)

1. a male saint; masculine of sainte

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

1. saintly (all meanings)

- 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:

• “saint”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• tians

From Old Irish sant, of unknown origin. DIL connects it with Welsh chwant (“desire”), but the Old Irish cognate of that word is actually sét (“treasure”). The ant sequence suggests a late loanword into Goidelic.

• (Ulster) IPA^(key): /sˠɪn̠ʲtʲ/[1]

saint f (genitive singular sainte)

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

• cíocras, gabhálacht (“avarice”)

• G. Toner, M. Ní Mhaonaigh, S. Arbuthnot, D. Wodtko, M.-L. Theuerkauf, editors (2019), “sant”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977), “saint”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN

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

• Audio (Jersey)

  (file)

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
• French: saint
• Norman: saint (Jersey)

• IPA^(key): /sai̯nt/

saint m pl (not mutable)

1. plural of sant