Exʹecrate (3 syl.)

To many Roman laws this tag was appended, “If any one breaks this law, sacer esto,” i.e. let his body, his family, and his goods be consecrated to the gods. When a man was declared sacer, anyone might kill him with impunity. Anyone who hurt a tribune was held a sacer to the goddess Cerēs. Ex in this word is intensitive.

“If anyone hurt a tribune in word or deed, he was held accursed [sacer], and his goods were confiscated.”—Livy, iii. 55; see also Dionysius, vi. 89, and viii. 17.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.