sabbath

C2+ Topic:Religion & Belief

US /ˈsæbəθ/ UK /ˈsæbəθ/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

noun
a day of religious rest and worship, especially the seventh day

They kept the sabbath holy and did no labor that day.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a day of religious rest and... rest worship day

Word family

Derived forms sabbaticalsabbatarian

Related forms sabbatical

Simplified etymology

Sabbath entered English in the Old English period and ultimately comes from Hebrew sabat, “to rest.” It denotes a day of rest and also underlies sabbatical, originally associated with the biblical practice of letting land rest every seventh year.

Etymology

From Old English sabat, reinforced by Latin sabbatum, from Ancient Greek sábbaton, from Hebrew shabbāth ('day of rest'), from shābath ('to rest, cease').

sabbatum Latin sábbaton Ancient Greek

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Religion & Belief

External links

# sabbath

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /ˈsæbəθ/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈsæbəθ/

## Meanings
1. a day of religious rest and worship, especially the seventh day

## Examples
- They kept the sabbath holy and did no labor that day.

## Synonyms
- rest
- worship
- day

## Derived Forms
- sabbatical
- sabbatarian

## Related Forms
- sabbatical

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: sabbatum
- Root: sábbaton

## Etymology
From Old English sabat, reinforced by Latin sabbatum, from Ancient Greek sábbaton, from Hebrew shabbāth ('day of rest'), from shābath ('to rest, cease').

## AI Etymology
Sabbath comes from Old English sabat, reinforced by Latin sabbatum, from Ancient Greek sábbaton, from Hebrew shabbāth ('day of rest'), from shābath ('to rest, cease'). The historical chain includes Latin sabbatum and Ancient Greek sábbaton. Older glosses in the chain include "day of rest" and "to rest, cease", which help explain the semantic range of the modern word. Morphologically, sabbath is best read as borrowing, yielding an English noun shaped by both form history and later usage. In current English it functions as a noun, with the sense "a day of religious rest and worship, especially the seventh day". English derivatives include sabbatical and sabbatarian; related forms include sabbatical. The result is an English noun whose etymology preserves the older forms while supporting the word's specialized modern meaning.

## Topics
- Religion & Belief

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