holy
adjective
belonging to or derived from or associated with a divine power
noun
a sacred place of pilgrimage
Origin
From Middle English ali, aly, hale, halege, hali, halȝe, hayly, holi, holia, holie, holiȝ, holy, hooly, oli, oly, wholy, woly, from Old English hāleġ, hāliġ (“holy, sacred; healthy, sound”), from Proto-West Germanic *hailag, from Proto-Germanic *hailagaz (“holy, sacred”), from Proto-Germanic *hailaz (“healthy; whole”), from Proto-Indo-European *kéh₂ilos (“intact, whole; complete; hale, healthy, sound”), equivalent to whole + -y and a doublet of later wholly. Cognates Cognate with Scots halie, haly (“holy”), Yola holly, holy (“holy”), Saterland Frisian helig (“holy”), Alemannic German, Dutch, and German heilig (“holy, sacred”), Cimbrian hòolig (“holy”), Luxembourgish helleg (“holy”), Vilamovian haeliḱ, haliky, hȧlikjy, hǡliḱ (“holy”), Yiddish הייליק (heylik, “holy”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål hellig (“holy”), Faroese heilagur (“holy”), Icelandic heilagur, helgur (“holy”), Norwegian Nynorsk heilag, heilag’u (“holy”), Swedish helig (“holy”), Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌹𐌻𐌰𐌲𐍃 (hailags, “holy”); also Latin cael, caelus, caelum, coelus, coelum (“heaven; sky; climate, weather”), Belarusian цэ́лы (cély, “entire, whole”), Bulgarian цял (cjal, “entire, full, intact, whole; real, regular, veritable”), Czec...
Phrases
- by the holy poker
- court holy bread
- court holy water
- Five Holy Wounds
- for the love of all that is holy
- Great and Holy Thursday
- holier than thou
- holiest of holies
- holy balls
- Holy of Holies
Related words
Word family
Broader terms
See also
WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.