odour of sanctity
/ˌoʊdəɹ‿əv ˈsæŋktɪti/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.70 in modern English
24
Scrabble Score
15
Letters
3
Syllables
12
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "Perhaps, too, the opinion that the relics of the holy dead were distinguished by a peculiar fragrance, may have arisen from embalmed bodies: at first, it might honestly have obtained among the Clergy; but when they saw how willingly it was received by the people, whenever a new mine of relics was opened, care was taken that the odour of sanctity should not be wanting."
- "The odours of sanctity differ both in quality and degree. St. Benedicta tells us from "personal observations" she finds that the odours of the angelic hierarchy differ as much as the perfume of flowers."
- "It [the body of Saint Mark the Evangelist] was then put into a large basket and carried down to the harbour, where a Venetian ship was waiting. By this time the odour of sanctity that issued from the body was becoming so strong that, in the words of one chronicler, 'If all the spices of the world had been gathered together in Alexandria, they could not have so perfumed the city.'"
- "As the odor of sanctity indicated the triumph of spiritual virtue over physical corruption, it was often considered able to heal physical ills. Numerous stories in saint lore refer to the healing power of the fragrance associated with a saint. […] The fact that corpses at this time were usually held to spread disease by their odor, made the curative power of the scents produced by the saint's corpse another example of how the natural order of bodily decay was reversed in the case of the saint through supernatural grace."
- "During the Middle Ages a sweet smell came to be expected of holy corpses, "and if the corpse of a servant of God did not emit 'the odour of sanctity,' the veneration might stop as quickly as it had begun." That expectation was registered and at once reinforced by the endless elaboration of the odor of sanctity in hagiography, where the trope tended to be literalized."
- "These [Taoist] 'immortals' were either resurrected or their bodies regrew, or the corpse did not go cold and emitted a 'pleasant' odour of sanctity."
Etymology
A calque of French odeur de sainteté (“sweet smell said to be emitted by bodies of saints at or after death”), from Late Latin odor sānctitātis (literally “odour of sanctity”) (compare odor suāvitātis (literally “sweet odour”)), from odor (“(sweet) smell, odour”) + sānctitātis (genitive singular of sānctitās (“sacredness, sanctity; holiness, virtue”)).
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˌoʊdəɹ‿əv ˈsæŋktɪti/
- British English: /ˌəʊdəɹ‿əv ˈsæŋktɪti/
Usage
- British usage
- Uncountable
- Humorous