saint

• n. 圣人；圣徒；道德崇高的人
• adj. 神圣的
• vt. 成为圣徒

词态变化

助记提示

中文词源

来自古法语 saint,圣人，圣徒，来自拉丁语 sanctus,神圣的，封圣的，词源同 sacred,sanctify. 拼写比较 point,puncture.

英文词源

saint

saint: [OE] Latin sancīre meant ‘consecrate’ (it was formed from the same base as produced sacer ‘holy’, source of English sacred, sacrifice, etc). Its past participle was sanctus. This came to be used as an adjective meaning ‘holy, sacred’, and in due course as a noun too, ‘holy person’. English originally borrowed it direct from Latin, as sanct, but this was superseded in the 12th century by saint, acquired via Old French. Other English words based on the Latin stem sanctinclude sanction, sanctity, etc, and saunter may be related to saint.
=> sacred

saint (n.)

early 12c., from Old French saint, seinte "a saint; a holy relic," displacing or altering Old English sanct, both from Latin sanctus "holy, consecrated" (used as a noun in Late Latin; also source of Spanish santo, santa, Italian san, etc.), properly past participle of sancire "consecrate" (see sacred). Adopted into most Germanic languages (Old Frisian sankt, Dutch sint, German Sanct).

Originally an adjective prefixed to the name of a canonized person; by c. 1300 it came to be regarded as a noun. Meaning "person of extraordinary holiness" is recorded from 1560s.

Saint, n. A dead sinner revised and edited. The Duchess of Orleans relates that the irreverent old calumniator, Marshal Villeroi, who in his youth had known St. Francis de Sales, said, on hearing him called saint: 'I am delighted to hear that Monsieur de Sales is a saint. He was fond of saying indelicate things, and used to cheat at cards. In other respects he was a perfect gentleman, though a fool.' [Ambrose Bierce, "Devil's Dictionary," 1911]

---

Perhaps you have imagined that this humility in the saints is a pious illusion at which God smiles. That is a most dangerous error. It is theoretically dangerous, because it makes you identify a virtue (i.e., a perfection) with an illusion (i.e., an imperfection), which must be nonsense. It is practically dangerous because it encourages a man to mistake his first insights into his own corruption for the first beginnings of a halo round his own silly head. No, depend upon it; when the saints say that they--even they--are vile, they are recording truth with scientific accuracy. [C.S. Lewis, "The Problem of Pain," 1940]

Saint Bernard, the breed of mastiff dogs (1839), so called because the monks of the hospice of the pass of St. Bernard (between Italy and Switzerland) sent them to rescue snowbound travelers; St. Elmo's Fire "corposant" (1560s) is from Italian fuoco di Sant'Elmo, named for the patron saint of Mediterranean sailors, a corruption of the name of St. Erasmus, an Italian bishop martyred in 303.

saint (v.)

"to enroll (someone) among the saints," late 14c., from saint (n.). Related: Sainted; sainting.

双语例句

1. I've had enough—there are limits even for the patience of a saint!

我已经受够了——即使是圣人忍耐也是有限的！

来自柯林斯例句

2. Chiswick church is dedicated to St Nicholas, patron saint of sailors.

奇西克教堂为水手的守护神圣尼古拉而建。

来自柯林斯例句

3. My girlfriend is a saint to put up with me.

能够忍受我，我的女朋友真的很有耐心。

来自柯林斯例句

4. I feel that she would try the patience of a saint.

我觉得圣人都能被她逼疯。

来自柯林斯例句

5. Every year they put a play on at Saint Holy Cross Church.

他们每年在圣十字教堂上演一出剧目。

来自柯林斯例句