The word for today is…

sanctimonious (adjective) –

1 : hypocritically pious or devout
2 obsolete : possessing sanctity : holy

Source : Merriam -Webster

Etymology : There’s nothing sacred about “sanctimonious”-at least not any more. But in the early 1600s, the English adjective was still sometimes used to describe someone truly holy or pious (a sense that recalls the meaning of the word’s Latin parent, sanctimonia). Shakespeare used both the “holy” and “holier-than-thou” senses in his work, referring in The Tempest to the “sanctimonious” (that is, “holy”) ceremonies of marriage, and in Measure for Measure to describe “the sanctimonious pirate that went to sea with the Ten Commandments but scraped one out of the table.” (Apparently, the pirate found the restriction on stealing a bit too inconvenient.)

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David is a retired surgeon originally from London who came to New Zealand twenty-seven years ago after being delayed in Singapore for thirteen years on leaving the UK. He was coerced into studying Latin...