Holiness is the quality of being sacred or morally pure. Personal holiness, a life of holiness, the holiness of the place.
It is a central term in most religious traditions and means being set apart for God as much as being good. His Holiness is the formal style of address for the Pope and the Dalai Lama. Note holy, whole and heal, which all come from the same root — the idea behind holiness is wholeness, which is a better etymology than most theology gets.
1nounholinessThe quality of being sacred or morally pure.
“The holiness of the site is why nothing has ever been built on it.”
holiness is a sacred quality.
Old English halignes comes from halig, holy, from hal, whole or sound — the same root as heal, health and whole. Something holy was originally something intact, and the moral sense grew from that.
Proto-West Germanic
*hailagnassī
Old English
hāliġnes — holiness, a holy thing, rites
Middle English
holynesse
English, today
holiness
From Middle English holynesse, holinesse, halinesse, from Old English hāliġnes (“holiness, a holy thing, rites”), from Proto-West Germanic hailagnassī, equivalent to holy + -ness. Cognate with West Frisian hilligens (“holiness”), Old High German heilagnissi, heilīgnissi (“holiness”), whence Middle High German heilignis (“halidom”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA