different between saint vs epistle

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /se?nt/
  • Rhymes: -e?nt
• (UK, as an unstressed, capitalised title) IPA^(key): /s?n(t)/, /s?n(t)/

Etymology 1

From Middle English saint, seint, sainct, seinct, sanct, senct, partly from Old English sanct (“saint”) and confluence with Old French saint, seinte (Modern French saint); both from Latin sanctus (“holy, consecrated”, in Late Latin as a noun, “a saint”), past participle of sancire (“to render sacred, make holy”), akin to sacer (“holy, sacred”). Displaced native Middle English halwe (“saint”) from Old English h?lga (“saint, holy one”) (> Modern English hallow (“saint”)).

Noun

saint (plural saints)

1. A person whom a church or another religious group has officially recognised as especially holy or godly; one eminent for piety and virtue.

   Kateri Tekakwitha was proclaimed a saint.
2. (figuratively, by extension) A person with positive qualities; one who does good.

   Dorothy Day was a living saint.

   Thanks for looking after the house while I'm away. You're a saint!

3. One of the blessed in heaven.
4. (archaic) A holy object.

Synonyms

• (holy person): hallow (obsolete)

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• hallow
• holos
• holy

Etymology 2

From Middle English saynten, seinten, sonten, partly from Anglo-Norman saintir and partly from the noun Middle English seint, seynt (see above).

Verb

saint (third-person singular simple present saints, present participle sainting, simple past and past participle sainted)

1. (transitive) To canonize, to formally recognize someone as a saint.

   Many wish to see Pope John Paul II sainted immediately.

Translations

Further reading

• saint in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• saint in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• Astin, Insta, Santi, Sinta, Tanis, Tians, antis, insta-, sat in, satin, stain, stian, tians, tisan

French

Etymology

From Latin sanctus (“holy”)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /s??/
• Rhymes: -??
• Homophones: sain, sains, saints, sein, seing, seings, seins, ceins, ceint, ceints

Noun

saint m (plural saints, feminine sainte)

1. saint

Adjective

saint (feminine singular sainte, masculine plural saints, feminine plural saintes)

1. saintly (all meanings)

Derived terms

Further reading

• “saint” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• tians

Irish

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

saint f (genitive singular sainte)

1. greed, avarice, covetousness
2. great eagerness, desire

Declension

Synonyms

• cíocras, gabhálacht (“avarice”)

Mutation

Norman

Etymology

From Old French saint, from Latin sanctus (“holy”).

Pronunciation

Adjective

saint m

1. (Jersey) holy

Noun

saint m (plural saints)

1. (Jersey, religion) saint

Old French

Alternative forms

• sanct (rare)
• saent (rare)
• seint (common, chiefly Anglo-Norman)

Etymology

Latin sanctus

Noun

saint m (oblique plural sainz or saintz, nominative singular sainz or saintz, nominative plural saint)

1. saint

Declension

Adjective

saint m (oblique and nominative feminine singular sainte)

1. holy
2. pious; devout

Descendants

• ? English: saint
• French: saint
• Norman: saint (Jersey)

Welsh

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sai?nt/

Noun

saint m pl (not mutable)

1. plural of sant

English

Etymology

Partially from Old English epistol and partially from Old French epistre, both from Latin epistola, from Ancient Greek ???????? (epistol?), from ????????? (epistéll?, “I send a message”), from ??? (epí, “upon”) + ?????? (stéll?, “I prepare, send”).

Pronunciation

• Hyphenation: e?pis?tle
• IPA^(key): /??p?s.l/, /??p?.s?l/
• Rhymes: -?s?l

Noun

epistle (plural epistles)

1. A letter, or a literary composition in the form of a letter.
   • 1748 — David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section III, § 5.

     he may be hurried from this plan by the vehemence of thought, as in an ode, or drop it carelessly, as in an epistle or essay
2. (Christianity) One of the letters included as a book of the New Testament.
   • 1956 — Werner Keller (translated by William Neil), The Bible as History, revised English edition, Chapter 41, page 358

     Even last century scholars had begun to search for the cities in Asia Minor whose names have become so familiar to the Christian world through the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles of St. Paul.

Derived terms

• epistler
• pistle

Related terms

• epistolarian
• epistolary
• epistolation
• epistolean
• epistolic
• epistolical
• epistolize
• epistolist
• epistolographer
• epistolographic
• epistolographist
• epistolography

Translations

Verb

epistle (third-person singular simple present epistles, present participle epistling, simple past and past participle epistled)

1. (obsolete, transitive, intransitive) To write; to communicate in a letter or by writing.
   • 1596, Thomas Nashe, Have with You to Saffron-Walden, London: John Danter, “The life and godly education from his childhood of that thrice famous clarke, and morthie Orator and Poet Gabriell Haruey,”^[1]

     Deuinitie (the Heauen of all Artes) for a while drew his thoughts vnto it, but shortly after the world the flesh and the diuell with-drewe him from that, and needes he would be of a more Gentleman-like lustie cut; whereupon hee fell to morrall Epistling and Poetrie.

   • 1671, John Milton, Paradise Regain’d, to which is added Samson Agonistes, London: John Starkey, “Of that sort of Dramatic Poem which is call’d Tragedy,” p. 4,^[2]

     And though antient Tragedy use no Prologue, yet using sometimes, in case of self defence, or explanation, that which Martial calls an Epistle; in behalf of this Tragedy coming forth after the antient manner, much different from what among us passes for best, thus much before-hand may be Epistl’d; that Chorus is here introduc’d after the Greek manner, not antient only but modern, and still in use among the Italians.

Anagrams

• pelites, septile