SACRIFICE [FIRST EDITION]. The term sacrifice, from the Latin sacrificium (sacer, "holy"; facere, "to make"), carries the connotation of the religious act in the highest, or fullest sense; it can also be understood as the act of sanctifying or consecrating an object. Offering is used as a synonym (or as a more inclusive category of which sacrifice is a subdivision) and means the presentation of a gift. (The word offering is from the Latin offerre, "to offer, present"; the verb yields the noun oblatio.) The Romance languages contain words derived from both the Latin words. The German Opfer is generally taken as derived from offerre, but some derive it from the Latin operari ("to perform, accomplish"), thus evoking once again the idea of sacred action.

Distinctions between sacrifice and offering are variously drawn, as for example, that of Jan van Baal: "I call an...