Nomina Sacra

SACRED NAME. - Alongside abbreviations (v.) by suspension, in the Christian era one encounters, abbreviated by contraction, words of a sacred character which, according to the expression used by L. Traube to designate them, now go under the definition of n. s.

Contraction is not of Christian origin, because in inscriptions earlier than the common era there are already found words abbreviated by this system, besides the names of emperors and of Egyptian months, written with the suppression of intermediate letters in papyri and in ostraka (cf. L. Schiaparelli, Note paleografiche, in Arch. stor. ital., 73 (1915), p. 307, note 2; and C. H. Turner [see bibl.], p. 63, note); but it is commonly considered a Christian abbreviatory system, because it is beyond doubt that the first n. s. were written in abbreviated form not merely in simple imitation of a preceding usage, but also in order to give them a particular distinction, a character precisely sacred. The line written above the n. s. also probably had in origin a distinctive meaning, although one cannot exclude its use also as an abbreviatory sign, especially when contraction extends as a system of abbreviation to many words that have no sacral character whatsoever.

In Greek, on the other hand, almost exclusively words that have a connection with the n. s. or derive from them will continue to be abbreviated by contraction (for example: ΘΚΟC = θεοτόκος, ΟΥΝΙΟC = οὐράνιος, ΠΝΙΚΟC (or ΠΝΑΤΙΚΟC) = πνευματικός, ΑΝΙΝΟC = ἀνθρώπινος, ΠΡΙC = πατρίς, ΚΟC = κυρίως, etc.).

Mario Burzachechi