Glossary Term
Risk: Medium- Approved rendering
- holy
- Transliteration
- holy
- Rejected alternatives
- holier-than-thou (negative idiom for sanctimonious superiority), holy cow / holy moly (mere exclamations, entirely secularized)
Holy
‘Holy’ survives mainly in negative idiom (‘holier-than-thou’) or as a content-free exclamation (‘holy cow!’), both of which drain the word of its ‘set apart for God’ meaning; must be actively re-taught rather than assumed familiar.