Definitions for "Nomina Sacra"
Keywords:  sacred, sacra, scripture, holy, lord
Holy or sacred words, especially the name of or references to God, which are usually abbreviated in standard forms.
A system for contracting "sacred names" developed among Christian scribes during the first centuries of Christianity. Eventually there were fifteen such forms. Explanations for their origin range from a Christian attempt to follow the model of the Jewish Tetragrammaton (four Hebrew characters representing the name of God) to an imitation of contractions representing proper names, titles, names of months, numerals, and formulae which occur in pre-Christian ostraca (pottery sherds) and inscriptions.
From the Latin for Sacred Name, used for a certain class of surrogates (which see) indicating sacral importance. Some scholars have argued that the entries k-"- (for Lord) and q-"- (for God) do not represent mere contractions or abbreviations, but rather that they were used to identify specific names of great importance in Scripture. The term Nomina Sacra is not used by these scholars as a synonym for divine name.