saint
UK[seɪnt]US[seɪnt]
n
A person who is officially recognized by the Christian church as being very holy because of the way they have lived or died.
n
A very good, kind, or patient person.
Etymology
The word 'saint' entered English via Old French 'seint' or 'saint', which itself descended from the Latin 'sanctus', the past participle of 'sancire' meaning 'to consecrate, to make sacred'. The Latin root is connected to the Proto-Indo-European root sak-, which carried the core meaning of 'to sanctify'. The semantic journey is direct: from the ancient concept of making something holy, to the Latin term for a holy person, to its adoption into English to denote both a canonized holy figure and, by extension, a person of exceptional virtue.
Analysis
The word 'saint' is a simplex loanword from French. It does not contain separable morphemes in its modern English spelling. Its origin is the Latin word 'sanctus', meaning 'holy, consecrated'.
Examples
The stained-glass window depicted Saint George slaying the dragon.
Your grandmother was a real saint for putting up with all of us.
He is the patron saint of travelers.