desecrate v.

active word-forming element in English and in many verbs inherited from French and Latin, from Latin de "down, down from, from, off; concerning" (see de), also used as a prefix in Latin, usually meaning "down, off, away, from among, down from," but also "down to the bottom, totally" hence "completely" (intensive or completive), which is its sense in many English words.

As a Latin prefix it also had the function of undoing or reversing a verb's action, and hence it came to be used as a pure privative — "not, do the opposite of, undo" — which is its primary function as a living prefix in English, as in defrost (1895), defuse (1943), de-escalate (1964), etc. In some cases, a reduced form of dis-.

late 14c., "make or declare sacred by certain ceremonies or rites," from Latin consecratus, past participle of consecrare "to make holy, devote," from assimilated form of com "with, together" (see con-) + sacrare "to make or declare sacred" (see sacred). Meaning "to devote or dedicate from profound feeling" is from 1550s. Related: Consecrated; consecrating.

Ah, what avails the sceptred race!   

  Ah, what the form divine!   

What every virtue, every grace!   

  Rose Aylmer, all were thine.   

Rose Aylmer, whom these wakeful eyes

  May weep, but never see,   

A night of memories and sighs   

  I consecrate to thee.

[Walter Savage Landor]

"sacrilegious treatment, act of diverting from a hallowed purpose or use," 1717, noun of action from desecrate (v.).