mactate means to kill in sacrifice. It carries an Arena rating of 1439, earned across 51 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, mactate ranks #1,559 of 17,151 for The Improbable, #1,842 of 17,131 for Scariest Words, #2,241 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #2,462 of 17,149 for Most Exacting Words.
mactate is pronounced /mækˈteɪt/.
Why “mactate” is a great word
MACTATE — [Verb] To kill, especially as a sacrificial offering. First attested in 1623; borrowed from Latin mactātus, perfect passive participle of mactō ("to kill, sacrifice, immolate"), from mactus ("honoured, glorified"). Unlike "immolate," which specifies a sacrificial death often by fire, or "slay," a general term devoid of ritual gravity, "mactate" names the solemn act that glorifies its object through destruction. It is the priest's steady hand, the precisely-split throat staining the altar stone, and the profound silence that follows—a terrible honor bestowed where obliteration becomes the final form of devotion.
Etymology
First attested in 1623; borrowed from Latin mactātus, perfect passive participle of mactō (“to kill, sacrifice, immolate”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from mactus (“honoured”); compare Middle French macter.
verb
- To kill in sacrifice.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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