Originally it was just that: performance of sacred rites. From the Latin words Sacra Facere.Master said:TopoftheAbyss said:Sacrifice means "to perform sacred rites", killing animals to eat is not sacrifice. Killing animals because it is asked on a sacred (holy) day is sacrifice.Master said:There is no difference. Sacrifice is sacrifice, only needs change. When you slaughter an animal, you take all the resources it has and that make up its life and you take it for yourself and your life. The same thing goes for plants and other things. Life is based on war and power. Look at what the organism has to do towards resources and towards microorganisms to live. You can imagine civilization as a large organism.
I can't make it more easier to understand than this.Offering of a thing, an animal, a person, made by man to a divinity, to a dead person, to an extra-human entity, or to a living man in whom the presence of the sacred is believed to be embodied; it is done in praise, either as an atonement or petition, or to appropriate the divine energies; also, the ceremony, the rite with which the offering is made: offering an ox as a sacrifice to Jupiter; bloody sacrifice, with bloodshed of the victim; human sacrifice, in which the victim is a human being.
When you bring a bouquet of flowers to your loved one, it is a fragrant sacrifice of fresh flowers. When a pub drinking tour is offered, that is a sacrifice in honor of those present.
Offering of life for a particular purpose: wars cost the unjust sacrifice of countless lives; make self-sacrifice; the ultimate sacrifice.
Sacrificing means offering or giving something of value, voluntarily or involuntarily. Voluntary sacrifice is when you give things of value of your own free will. Involuntary sacrifice is when you offer things of value against your will. An example of this is food. The cow, for example, does not voluntarily give you its milk and its meat but you take it against its will. Sacrifice is not just about symbolic rites.
It changed when the Jews took over and made up lies about Pagans.