Etymograph

English

sanction

Sanction comes from Latin sānctiō ‘penalty, sanction’, from sanciō ‘to render, make or appoint as sacred or…’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *seh₂k-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*seh₂k-1‘to sanctify, to make a treaty’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*sankiō1‘to consecrate’reconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsanciō2‘to render, make or appoint as sacred or inviolable by a religious act’
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsānctiō3‘penalty, sanction’
  5. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600sanction3
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1837sanction3

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin sancio
  2. 2 Wiktionary, Latin sanctio
  3. 3 Wiktionary, English sanction
  4. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1837, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, The Truth of Presentiments: “The idea that it was more comfortable in the…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*seh₂k-Wiktionary, Latin sancio‘to sanctify, to make a treaty’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*sankiōWiktionary, Latin sancio‘to consecrate’reconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsanciōWiktionary, Latin sanctio‘to render, make or appoint as sacred or inviolable by a religious act’
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsānctiōWiktionary, English sanction‘penalty, sanction’
  5. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600sanctionWiktionary, English sanction
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1837sanctionWiktionary, English sanction. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1837, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, The Truth of Presentiments: “The idea that it was more comfortable in the…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *seh₂k- ‘to sanctify, to make a treaty’

sacrilege, consecration, sacramental, consecrate, 12 more

through Proto-Italic *sankiō ‘to consecrate’

santo, 5 more

through Latin sanciō ‘to render, make or appoint as sacred or…’

saint

Today it means

noun An approval, by an authority, generally one that makes something valid.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “sanction”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Latin sancio, Latin sanctio. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *seh₂k- / sanction

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