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▪ I. sanction, n.|ˈsæŋkʃən|
[a. F. sanction (16th c.) or ad. L. sanctiōn-em action of ordaining as inviolable under a penalty, also a decree or ordinance, n. of action f. sancīre to render sacred or inviolable, ordain, decree, ratify.]
1. A law or decree; esp. an ecclesiastical decree. [So L. sanctio; cf. F. ‘sanctions ou ordonnances ecclesiastiques’, 1516 in Godefroy.] Obs. exc. Hist.
pragmatic sanction: see pragmatic A. 1.
1563–87Foxe A. & M. (1596) 5/1 Whereas now both the rule of Scripture, and sanctions of the old councels set aside, all things..are decided by certeine new decretal or rather extra decretal and extravagant constitutions. 1577Harrison England ii. xix. (1877) i. 311 Canutus..did at the last make sundrie sanctions and decrees. 1583Stubbes Anat. Abus. ii. (1882) 15 The breach or violation of any humane lawe, ordinance, constitution, statute, or sanction. 1660Jer. Taylor Duct. Dubit. ii. i. rule ix. §9 But even in this original rule and great sanction God did dispense with the Israelites. 1668Denham Of Justice 1 'Tis the first Sanction, Nature gave to Man, Each other to assist in what they can. 1670Moral State Eng. 105 The sanctions and constitutions of his own Nation. 1700Dryden Cinyras & Myrrha 97 Secure the sacred Quiet of thy Mind, And keep the Sanctions Nature has design'd. 1706Phillips (ed. Kersey), Sanction, Decree, Ordinance, especially such as relate to Ecclesiastical Affairs; as the Constitution made at the Council of Basil, for the Reformation of the Church. 1725Pope Odyss. i. 107 Bid him..The Sanction of th' assembled pow'rs report: That wise Ulysses to his native land Must speed, obedient to their high command. 1844S. R. Maitland Dark Ages 19 The bishop is to appoint priests and other prudent men, skilled in the divine law, and conversant with the ecclesiastical sanctions.
2. a. Law. The specific penalty enacted in order to enforce obedience to a law.
a1633Austin Medit. (1635) 267 The feare, or Sanction, of the Commandements preserves the Memory of the Law in our hearts. 1671[R. MacWard] True Nonconf. 316 The sanction and pain of this divine Law being by sin incurred. 1696Stillingfl. Doctr. Christ's Satisfaction i. Pref. (1697) 15 If there were such a Sanction of the Law, whereby an Obligation to Punishment did follow the Offences forbidden by it. 1736Butler Anal. i. ii. 35 If..civil Magistrates could make the Sanctions of their Laws take place, without interposing at all, after they had passed them. c1750Shenstone Elegies xxii. 59 When savage robbers every sanction brave. c1765Burke On Popery Laws Wks. IX. 338 The mode of conviction is as extraordinary as the penal sanctions of this Act. 1781Cowper Truth 553 He gives a perfect rule..And guards it with a sanction as severe As vengeance can inflict, or sinners fear. 1821J. Q. Adams in C. Davies Metr. Syst. iii. (1871) 278 To require, under suitable sanctions that all the weights and measures..should be conformable to the national standards. 1829Macaulay Mill on Govt. in Edin. Rev. Mar. 187 The fear of death..is the most formidable sanction which legislators have been able to devise. 1832Austin Jurispr. (1873) I. 92 The evil which will probably be incurred in case a command be disobeyed..is frequently called a sanction, or an enforcement of obedience. 1844Gladstone Glean. V. liii. 122 [In the Bible] it is declared under the most awful Sanctions, that God will not endure that his honour shall be given to another. 1845Polson in Encycl. Metrop. II. 733/2 Sanctions of the Law of Nations... These sanctions..may..be reduced to two classes:—(1) Reprisals... (2) War. 1875Maine Hist. Inst. ii. 39 Another example..of the want or weakness of the sanction in the Brehon law.
b. Law. Extended to include the provision of rewards for obedience, along with punishments for disobedience, to a law (remuneratory sanction, as distinguished from vindicatory sanction or punitive sanction, sanction).
1692Tyrrell tr. Cumberland's Law Nat. iii. §13. 126 The strictest Sanction which any Soveraign Power can give unto its Laws, is, when it..hath..declared, That it will conferr a sufficient share of good Things, or Rewards, for so doing; and of Evils, or Punishments, upon any breach, or neglect of its Commands. 1727J. Maxwell tr. Cumberland's Laws Nat. v. §35. 247 A Law is a practical Proposition concerning the Prosecution of the Common Good, guarded by the Sanction of Rewards and Punishments. 1765Blackstone Comm. I. 56 Human legislators have for the most part chosen to make the sanction of their laws rather vindicatory than remuneratory. 1825Whately Ess. Pecul. Chr. Relig. i. 44 The temporal sanctions of the [Mosaic] law, the plenty and famine, the victory and defeat. 1845R. Jebb in Encycl. Metrop. II. 686/1 We feel fully warranted in classing rewards amongst legal sanctions.
c. The part or clause of a law which declares the penalty attached to infringement. Similarly in a charter (see quot. 1844). [So L. sanctio.] Obs. exc. Hist.
1651Baxter Inf. Bapt. 175 The Law hath two parts, the mandate and the sanction. 1765Blackstone Comm. I. 54 The sanction, or vindicatory branch of the law; whereby it is signified what evil or penalty shall be incurred by such as commit any public wrongs, and transgress or neglect their duty. 1844Lingard Anglo-Sax. Ch. (1858) II. App. H. 369 The sanction or close of the charter in these instruments is almost always the same, at least in substance—a sort of blessing promised to those who observe the grant, and of imprecation against those who break it.
d. Pol. Esp. in pl., economic or military action taken by a state or alliance of states against another as a coercive measure, usu. to enforce a violated law or treaty.
1919G. B. Shaw Peace Conference Hints vi. 84 Such widely advocated and little thought-out ‘sanctions’ as the outlawry and economic boycott of a recalcitrant nation. 1935Punch 25 Dec. 728 ‘And you,’ we replied in great excitement, ‘are the very man to give it to him. Come, now, put on your beard, fly over to Italy, and—sanctions or no sanctions—put into his stocking your One Hundred and Eighty-Ninth Volume.’ 1937A. Huxley Ends & Means ix. 109 Military sanctions are war. Economic sanctions, if applied with vigour, must inevitably lead to war-like reactions on the part of the nation to which they are applied, and these war-like reactions can only be countered by military sanctions. 1943H. A. Wallace in N.Y. Times 26 July 10/6 He witnessed the collapse of sanctions under the League of Nations. 1948P. D. Whitting in M. Beloff Hist. 356/1 Abyssinia was annexed by Italy in May, 1936. Sanctions were dropped two months later. 1965New Statesman 9 Apr. 562/2 Given sufficient pressures to ensure the cooperation of British firms and banks operating in Rhodesia..sanctions could work if they were maintained for an extended period. 1981Guardian 20 July 12/2 If Israel is to be stopped from riding roughshod over Western interests in the Middle East.., American sanctions may have to be a lot more convincing.
3. Ethics. A consideration which operates to enforce obedience to any law or rule of conduct; a recognized motive for conformity to moral or religious law, operating either through the agent's desire for some resultant good or through his fear of some resultant evil.
As a technical term of Ethics, the word is favoured by the Utilitarians. For the classification of the different ‘sanctions’ see quots. 1780 and 1887. The sanction of law in the strict sense (see 2 above) is distinguished as ‘legal’ or ‘political’. Bentham's ‘moral sanction’ corresponds to the ‘social sanction’ of other writers.
1681S. Parker Demonstr. Law Nat. 72 The most powerfull and effectual Sanction in the World, viz. the Pleasures or Torments of Conscience. 1754Richardson Grandison VI. xix. 90 Religious zeal is a strengthener, a confirmer, of all the social sanctions. 1758R. Price (title) A Review of the principal Questions and Difficulties in Morals. Particularly Those relating to the Original of our Ideas of Virtue, its Nature, Foundation, Reference to the Deity, Obligation, Subject-matter and Sanctions. 1780Bentham Princ. Legisl. iii. §2 There are four distinguishable sources from which pleasure and pain are in use to flow: considered separately, they may be termed the physical, the political, the moral, and the religious: and inasmuch as the pleasures and pains belonging to each of them are capable of giving a binding force to any law or rule of conduct, they may all of them be termed sanctions. 1794Paley Evid. ii. ii. (1817) 55 To supply what was much more wanting than lessons of morality, stronger moral sanctions, and clearer assurances of a future judgement. 1817Jas. Mill Brit. India II. v. ix. 709 The undivided reputation of good measures, the undivided ignominy of bad, redounded to the Court of Directors. The great sanction of public opinion therefore acted upon them with concentrated energy. 1861Mill Utilit. iii. 39 With regard to any supposed moral standard—what is its sanction? what are the motives to obey it? 1874Sidgwick Meth. Ethics ii. v. (1890) 164 These ‘sanctions’ we may classify as External and Internal. The former class will include both ‘Legal Sanctions’..and ‘Social Sanctions’. 1887Fowler Princ. Morals ii. iii. 144 Physical sanctions are the pleasures and pains which follow naturally on the observance or violation of physical laws, the sanctions employed by society are praise and blame, the moral sanctions..are..the approval and disapproval of conscience; lastly, the religious sanctions are either the fear of future punishment, and the hope of future reward, or, to the higher religious sense, simply the love of God, and the dread of displeasing Him. 1896‘M. Field’ Attila iv. 102 For he rejects our sanctions, he is bound By nothing we are bound by.
4. Binding force given to an oath; something which makes an oath or engagement binding; † a solemn oath or engagement.
1611B. Jonson Catiline i. C 4 There cannot be A fitter drinke, to make this Sanction in. Here I beginne the Sacrament to all. a1745Swift Serm., Testimony Consc., This Word [honour] is often made the Sanction of an Oath; it is reckoned a great Commendation to be a Man of strict Honour. 17..tr. Rollin's Anc. Hist. iii. ii. (ed. 5, 1768) II. 28 [Sennacherib] The Assyrian, regarding neither the sanction of oaths nor treaties, still continued the war. 1817Shelley Rev. Islam x. xxix, We swear by thee! and to our oath do thou Give sanction, from thine hell of fiends and flame. 1869Freeman Norm. Conq. III. xii. 242 When he knew by how awful a sanction he had unwittingly bound his soul.
5. The action of rendering legally authoritative or binding; solemn confirmation or ratification given to a law, enactment, etc. by a supreme authority.
1658Phillips, Sanction, a decreeing, enacting, or establishing, any Law or Ordinance. 1660Jer. Taylor Duct. Dubit. ii. i. rule i. §41 It became a law only by the authority and proper sanction of God. c1680Beveridge Serm. (1729) I. 85 All which laws have their..sanction from the supreme lawgiver. 1699T. Baker Refl. Learn. xiv. 167 As to Lancelottus's Book of Institutes, which Dr. Duck seems to make a part of the Corpus, he is therein mistaken, for wanting Sanction and Authority, it is only yet a private work. 1784Cowper Epist. Jos. Hill 57 Could a law like that which I relate Once have the sanction of our triple state? 1838Thirlwall Greece IV. xxxii. 221 It even appears that a decree might be first moved in the Assembly, and then be sent up to receive the formal sanction of the Council, which could not be withheld. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. i. I. 85 The day on which the royal sanction was, after many delays, solemnly given to this great Act, was a day of joy and hope. 1875Maine Hist. Inst. ii. 27 Thus when a body of Brehon judgments was promulgated by an Irish chief to a tribal assembly it is probable that convenience was the object sought rather than a new sanction.
6. a. An express authoritative permission or recognition (e.g. of an action, procedure, custom, institution, etc.).
1720Pope Iliad xvii. 246 Then with his sable Brow he gave the Nod, That seals his Word; the Sanction of the God. 1749Smollett Regicide i. i. (1777) 7 And implore A parent's sanction to support my claim. 1769Junius Lett. viii. (1788) 63 You pardon the offence, and are not ashamed to give the sanction of government to the riots you complain of. 1774Burke Sp. Amer. Tax. Sel. Wks. I. 95 He will permit me to apply myself to the House under the sanction of his authority. 1798S. & Ht. Lee Canterb. T., Yng. Lady's T. II. 103 [He] told her, this experiment had not only his sanction, but warmest approbation. 1813Shelley Q. Mab ii. 157 But what was he who taught them that the God Of nature and benevolence hath given A special sanction to the trade of blood? 1845Stephen Comm. Laws Eng. (1874) I. 108 The mother country..had never hesitated to lend her sanction to that iniquitous method of cultivation. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. vi. II. 77 He had caused it to be announced that, at every church in the kingdom, a collection would be made under his sanction for their benefit. Ibid. ix. 441 He could not make a descent on England without the sanction of the United Provinces. 1883Sir W. B. Brett in Law Rep. 11 Q. B. Div. 561 The trustee may, with the sanction of a special resolution of the creditors, accept any composition offered by the bankrupt.
b. fig. Now also in looser sense, countenance or encouragement given (intentionally or otherwise) to an opinion or practice by a person of influence, by custom, public sentiment, etc.
1738Swift Pol. Conversat. Introd. 34 Authentick Expressions, I mean, such as must receive a Sanction from the polite World, before their Authority can be allowed. 1756C. Lucas Ess. Waters III. 112 The multitude gave fiction the sanction of authority. 1774Pennant Tour Scot. in 1772, 298 Such length of time does it require to root out follies that have the sanction of antiquity. 1841Myers Cath. Th. iii. §24. 87 This testimony, as popularly interpreted, does present great appearance of sanction to some of the views which are discountenanced in these Pages. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. vii. II. 183 Religion gave her sanction to that intense and unquenchable animosity. 1852Conybeare & Howson St. Paul (1862) i. vii. 213 His behaviour was giving a strong sanction to the very heresy which was threatening the existence of the Church.
7. a. Something which serves to support, authorize, or confirm an action, procedure, etc.
1728Young Love Fame v. 154 We grant that beauty is no bar to sense, Nor is't a sanction for impertinence. 1856Patmore Angel in Ho. ii. ii. iv, The wedded yoke that each had donned, Seeming a sanction, not a bond. 1863Kinglake Crimea (1876) I. iv. 60 To a cause having all these sanctions the voice of prophecy could not be wanting.
†b. A recommendation or testimonial. Obs.
1791Boswell Johnson Advt., What reason I had to hope for the countenance of that venerable Gentleman to this Work, will appear from what he wrote to me upon a former occasion... Such a sanction to my faculty of giving a just representation of Dr. Johnson I could not conceal. 1813C. Marshall Garden. (ed. 5) Pref., The author..thinks it [? read he] is but doing himself justice by republishing the following sanctions, as they occurred on the first Edition.
¶8. Assurance of protection under the laws of hospitality. (Confused with sanctuary?) rare—1.
1754Richardson Grandison II. xlv. (III. xiii), I cannot forgive myself—To suffer myself to be provoked by two such men, to violate the sanction of my own house!
9. a. attrib. and Comb., as (sense 2 d) sanction-breaker, sanction-buster, sanction-busting; sanction-induced adj.
1968Guardian 25 Apr. 1/8 British citizens would be able to come to Britain from Rhodesia ‘unless they are known *sanction breakers or supporters of the illegal regime’.
1973Times 8 June 27/1 (heading) Dutch move to stop the *sanction busters.
1973Guardian 16 Apr. 1/6 The Smith regime in Rhodesia has carried out its most spectacular coup in *sanction-busting..with the triumphant announcement that three Boeing-707 jet airliners have been delivered. 1974A. Williams Gentleman Traitor xii. 186 He studied the..South African and Rhodesian economies, and how these interlocked with the complex methods of Sanction-Busting.
1970D. Goldrich et al. in I. L. Horowitz Masses in Lat. Amer. v. 192 We can project the possibility..of *sanction-induced parochialism on the part of formerly more highly politicalized actors.
b. attrib. and Comb. in pl. (sense 2 d), as sanctions-breaker, sanctions-breaking, sanctions-buster, sanctions-busting; sanctions-busting adj.
1973R. Lewis Blood Money viii. 110 Scathe would not be publishing an exposé on the German businessman, *sanctions-breaker or not.
1935Times 7 Nov. 14/6 It may be taken for granted..that the German conception of neutrality does not permit of what might be described as ‘*sanctions-breaking’. 1976P. Driscoll Barboza Credentials i. ii. 29 Countries whose laissez-faire attitudes had encouraged sanctions-breaking.
Ibid. iii. i. 92, I had one immediate concern: the British consulate. *Sanctions-buster or not, I was in desperate need of their help.
1970Observer 1 Mar. 4/4 It is disappointed that so little is being done to..promote the campaign against the *sanctions-busting ships. 1975M. Hartmann Game for Vultures ii. 22 He had started seriously in the sanctions busting game.
Add:[6.] c. spec. In military intelligence, the permission to kill a particular individual. Also, a killing due to this.
1980Keene & Haynes Spyship xv. 170 You'd like the Sanction, I take it?.. Reestablish contact when Sanction is completed. 1983P. Niesewand Scimitar xiv. 378 His apartment was on the third floor, so the agents knew they would have to use another method of sanction... It was clear that Ross alone would kill that night while Lyle watched. 1988‘R. Deacon’ Spyclopaedia 411 Sanction, intelligence agency approval for a killing.
▪ II. sanction, v.|ˈsæŋkʃən|
[f. prec. n. Cf. F. sanctionner (18th c.).]
trans. To give sanction to.
1. To ratify or confirm by sanction or solemn enactment; to invest with legal or sovereign authority; to make valid or binding.
1778Jefferson Autobiog. App., Wks. 1859 I. 146 Preserving..the very words of the established law, wherever their meaning had been sanctioned by judicial decisions. 1784Cowper Task v. 548 That charter sanction'd sure By th' unimpeachable and awful oath And promise of a God! 1791Burke App. Whigs 12 Tests against old principles, sanctioned by the laws. 1823J. Marshall Const. Opin. (1839) 284 The titles held under the Indians were sanctioned by length of possession. 1838Prescott Ferd. & Is. i. iii. I. 182 They entered into a covenant sanctioned by all the solemnities of religion usual on these occasions, not to re-enter [etc.].
2. a. To permit authoritatively; to authorize; in looser use, to countenance, encourage by express or implied approval.
1797Mrs. Radcliffe Italian viii, My own voice never shall sanction the evils to which I may be subjected. 1798Ferriar Of Genius in Illustr. Sterne, etc. 286 Such a preference ought not to be sanctioned by philosophers. 1807–26S. Cooper First Lines Surg. (ed. 5) 416 The employment of bandages in these cases is sanctioned by high authorities. 1812H. & J. Smith Rej. Addr. v, Nor..will I ever sanction a theatre with my presence. 1836J. Gilbert Chr. Atonem. Notes (1852) 366 These statements are sanctioned by common sense. 1840Macaulay Ess., Clive ⁋121 (1897) 536 The Directors..were not disposed to sanction any increase of the salaries out of their own treasury. 1844H. H. Wilson Brit. India i. viii. I. 499 The system of commerce and administration which had been sanctioned by the existing charter. 1857Gladstone Glean. VI. xli. 73 Etymologically it is not tied to the one rather than the other sense; and usage will sanction either. 1865Grote Plato I. v. 190 Positions..which the dialogues themselves do not even sanction, much less suggest. 1908Q. Rev. Oct. 329 He renounced on principle..large profits sanctioned by usage.
b. To allege sanction for; to justify as permissible.
1876L. Stephen Eng. Th. in 18th C. i. §21 I. 21 If Spinoza and Hobbes were accused of Atheism, each of them sanctioned his speculations by the sacred name of theology.
3. To enforce (a law, legal obligation, etc.) by attaching a penalty to transgression. Cf. sanction n. 2 a, b.
1825Whately Ess. Pecul. Chr. Relig. i. 45 The temporal rewards and punishments..which sanctioned that Law. 1832Austin Jurispr. (1873) I. 92 The command or the duty is said to be sanctioned or enforced by the chance of incurring the evil. Ibid. 522 Laws are sometimes sanctioned by nullities.
4. To impose sanctions upon (a person), to penalize.
A use of doubtful acceptability at present.—R.W.B.
1956Universe 27 July 1/1 (heading) Let Church sanction road killers. 1978Daily Mail 29 Nov. 9/1 Sir Geoffrey Howe..referred to Ford's being ‘sanctioned’... Nobody..made a protest about this violence being done to the English language (or about normal meanings being stood on their head). |