The Holy Season, part 2

Another Greek root meaning holy is hiero-, from hieros, sacred or holy. Let’s look at some representative samples.

• hierocracy: The rule of priests or religious dignitaries; government by priests or ecclesiastics
• hierodule: A slave (of either sex) dwelling in a temple, and dedicated to the service of a god. [Actually, they tended to be courtesans, a holy office at the time.]
• hierogamy: A sacred marriage.
• hieroglyph: A figure of some object, as a tree, animal, etc., standing for a word. [sacred carving]
• hierogram: A sacred symbol.
• hierograph: A sacred inscription or symbol
• hierography: A description of sacred things; a description of religions.
• hierolatry: Worship of holy beings or saints
• hierology: (1) ‘A discourse on sacred things’ (Webster 1828). Obs. (2) Hieroglyphic lore; the study of Egyptian records. Obs.
• hieromachy: A conflict of ecclesiastics.
• hieromancy: Divination from the observation of objects offered in religious sacrifices, or from sacred things.
• hieromartyr: In the Greek Calendar, a martyr who was in holy orders.
• hieropathic: Consisting in love of the clergy.
• hierophant: An official expounder of sacred mysteries or religious ceremonies, esp. in ancient Greece; an initiating or presiding priest.
• hierophobia: Fear or horror of sacred things or persons.
• hieroscopy: a kind of divination, performed by considering the victim, and observing every thing that occurs during the course of the sacrifice.

SIDEBAR: Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary

SIDEBAR: Hieroglyphic Ensemble [Go to June 26 on that site]

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The Holy Season, part 1

The church of Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom), once the most important church in the Christian Orient.


Perhaps only theologians or word phreaks will care, but a number of words are based on Greek roots that mean holy. Today, let’s focus on hagio-, from the Greek hagios, holy or saintly.

• hagiocracy: A government or sovereignty of persons esteemed holy.
• hagiographer: A sacred writer, especially one of the writers of the Hagiographa [Psalms, Proverbs, Job; Canticles, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther; Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, Chronicles]
• hagiography: The writing of the lives of saints; saints' lives as a branch of literature or legend.
• hagiolatry: The worship of saints.
• hagiologist: A writer of hagiology; one versed in the legends of saints.
• hagiology: The literature that treats of the lives and legends of saints; also, by extension, of great men or heroes; a work on the lives and legends of the saints.
• hagiomania: Saintly madness; a mania for sainthood;
• hagioscope: A small opening, cut through a chancel arch or wall, to enable worshippers in an aisle or side chapel to obtain a view of the elevation of the host.
• hagiosidere: [1730] A plate of iron. . .which the Greeks under the dominion of the Turks (being prohibited the use of bells) strike on, with a hammer, to call the people to church.
• hagiotypic: pertaining to types of saints.

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