Other forms: sacrileges
Sacrilege is violation of something held sacred. An act of sacrilege, commit sacrilege, sheer sacrilege.
It is used as often about football grounds and old recipes as about churches, and the joke is half serious: calling a change sacrilege says somebody treats the thing as holy. The original Latin meant stealing sacred objects from a temple.
1nounsacrilegeViolation of something held sacred.
“The villagers were shocked by the sacrilege when thieves stole the silver cross from the church.”
sacrilege is a violation.
Latin sacrilegium means the stealing of sacred things — sacer, sacred, plus legere, to gather or steal.
Latin
sacrilegium
Old French
sacrilege
Middle English
sacrilege
English, today
sacrilege
Built from
Circa 1300, original sense “stealing something sacred”. From Middle English sacrilege, from Old French sacrilege, from Latin sacrilegium, from sacrilegus (“sacrilegious”). Sense of “profanation” from late 14th century.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA