holy

adj
/ˈhəʊli/UK/ˈhoʊli/US

Etymology

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”), Czech and Slovak celý (“whole”), Macedonian цел (cel, “entire, whole”), Polish cały (“entire, whole”), Russian це́лый (célyj, “entire, whole”), Serbo-Croatian це̏о, ци̏јел, ци̏о, cȅo, cȉjel, cȉo (“entire, whole”), Slovene cel (“whole”), Ukrainian ці́лий (cílyj, “entire, whole”). More at whole.

  1. derived from *kéh₂ilos — “intact, whole; complete; hale, healthy, sound
  2. derived from *hailaz — “healthy; whole
  3. inherited from *hailagaz — “holy, sacred
  4. inherited from *hailag
  5. inherited from hāleġ
  6. inherited from ali

Definitions

  1. Dedicated to a religious purpose or a god.

    • I'm planning to visit the holy city of Jerusalem this Christmas.
    • ... where he and Basil read together poems and philosophies, and holier things, or talked low and misopogonistcally of their fellow-student Julian’s bearded boding smile were his happiest days.
  2. Revered in a religion.

    • This tree is considered holy in my culture.
  3. Morally perfect or flawless, or nearly so.

    • My grandmother is a very holy woman.
  4. + 6 more definitions
    1. Separated or set apart from (something unto something or someone else).

    2. Set apart or dedicated for a specific purpose, or for use by a single entity or person.

    3. Used as an intensifier in various interjections.

      • Holy cow, I can’t believe he actually lost the race!
      • Those children next door are holy terrors!
      • Holy mackerel
    4. An expression of astonishment and awe.

    5. A thing that is extremely holy

      A thing that is extremely holy; used almost exclusively in Holy of Holies.

      • The holy of holies, a cubical space of ten cubits on the side, was separated from the larger antechamber by four columns, which were also covered with gold and stood upon silver sockets; they bore a second curtain of four colors.
    6. Alternative letter-case form of holy used when referring to an important figure, such as…

      Alternative letter-case form of holy used when referring to an important figure, such as God, or to an important item or event.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at holy. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01holy02revered03revere04devotion05devoted06consecrated07consecrate

A definitional loop anchored at holy. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

7 hops · closes at holy

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA