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Sacred is an adjective (Random House Dictionary, 1967). It would seem that one cannot let te word simply dangle: it must refer to something (as in: the sacred land; the sacred text.) Yet the (translated) title of Rudolph Otto's famous book is:

The Idea of the Holy.

True, it obviously is a Germanism. The (relevant part of the) original title is:

Das Heilige.

Has that form now become commonplace enough so that I may speak of "The Sacred" as in the title I am contemplating, for a paper discussing interpretation of sacred texts:

"On Reading the Sacred"?

Araucaria - Him
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Mike
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2 Answers2

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This is an example of a fused Modifier-Head construction, as described in The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language (Huddleston & Pullum, 2002). Here the adjective sacred is functioning as the Head of the noun phrase. But it is also understood as a Modifier of some unexpressed noun. Here are some more examples:

  • the good, the bad and the ugly
  • the French, the English, the Dutch
  • You take the red, and I'll take the blue
  • the blind, the poor
  • the best was yet to come

We can also find determiners functioning as fused Modifier-Heads

  • I'll take the two by the door.

The Original Poster's fused Modifier-Head noun phrase is commonly seen in in partnership with another in the binomial:

  • the sacred and the profane.

All of these, of course, are completely grammatical. We wouldn't call sacred a proper noun here, though. It's occurring with a determiner. But most importantly, it isn't a noun!

Araucaria - Him
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Yes, an adjective can be used as a noun, and a proper noun if appropriate.

"On Reading the Sacred" would be understood to mean "On Reading the Sarcred (Writings)" (or Things) by most readers.

See this article and this article.

Also, see this explaination.

Davo
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