I just now searched for "sacrifice definition" and it pulled up an assortment of different meanings, none of which are wrong per se but none of which say what I think the word really means. The closest was this:
The act of giving up something highly valued for the sake of something else considered to have a greater value or claim:
Searching for "sacrifice etymology" gets me this:
Latin sacrificiumThe word sacrifice comes from Latin sacrificium, which means "a making sacred". It is composed of the Latin words sacer, meaning "sacred" or "holy", and facere, meaning "to do" or "to make". The word sacrifice originally referred to the act of offering something to a deity as a sign of respect or appeasement.
And that agrees with what I think of the word. Sacrifice is making a choice which honors and invests in something you value so much you "hold it to be sacred."
If you feel like giving up something is a painful choice, then you don't really hold something else sacred. It's not a painful choice if giving up x gets you y with y being the thing you hold sacred.
I've been celibate for roughly two decades. For MEDICAL reasons.
I value my health more than sex. It's that simple.
If I could have both, coolios. That would be nice.
If I have to choose between the two, it's a no brainer. I choose life and to suffer less.
And if that seems awful to you, then I don't think you comprehend what my genetic disorder does to people that it's classified as a Dread Disease. Because it ruins not only your health but your life in ways that are hard to describe.
It's a Dread Disease because if you have it and you comprehend it, you live in dread of what your future holds. And I don't have to feel that way in part because I gave up sex to invest in my health and it allowed me to walk away from what my genes are supposed to do to me.
It let me out of a personal horror movie that most people with my condition cannot escape.