saint [ME] Saint comes via Old French, from Latin sanctus ‘holy’. The word has been used in the names of many diseases such as St Vitus’s dance [E17th] with the supposition that the associated saint would ward off the illness. Also based on sanctus are sanctify [LME], sanctity [LME], sanctimonious [E17th] originally meaning ‘holy in character’, and sanctuary [ME] originally a holy place where you were safe from attack or arrest. A sanction [LME] was originally an ecclesiastical decree and comes from Latin sancire which meant both ‘to make holy’ and ‘to decree’.