sacralization

From sacralize + -ation.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /seɪkɹəlʌɪˈzeɪʃ(ə)n/

sacralization (countable and uncountable, plural sacralizations)

1. The endowment of something with sacred qualities; making sacred.
   • 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 153:

     The spirituality of hunters and gatherers is a sacralization of everyday life, but once we move to maintain a formal priesthood, we also move to split experience into the sacred and the profane.

   • 2011, Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature, Penguin, published 2012, page 313:

     The sacralization of arbitrary lines on a map may seem illogical, but there is a rationale to the respecting of norms, even arbitrary and unjustifiable ones.

2. A developmental abnormality in which the first sacral vertebra becomes fused with the fifth lumbar veterbra.

• desanctification
• desacralization

• sacralize

• scalarization