altar
nounUK /ˈɒl.tə/ · US /ˈɔl.tɚ/
Etymology Inherited from Middle English auter, inherited from Old English altar and borrowed from Old French auter, both derived from Latin altāre, probably related to adolere (“burn”); thus "burning place", influenced by altus (“high”). Displaced native Middle English wēved.
1
A table or similar flat-topped structure used for religious rites.
- To hawke, or els to hunt From the auter to the funt, Wyth cry unreverent, Before the sacrament, Wythin the holy church bowndis, That of our fayth the grownd is.c. 1503–1512, John Skelton, Ware the Hauke; republished in John Scattergood, editor, John Skelton: The Complete English Poems, 1983, →OCLC, page 62, lines 9–14:
- Wax models of the pudenda of both sexes were regularly placed before the altar.1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 228:
2
Informal A raised area around an altar in a church; the sanctuary.
3
Figuratively Any (real or notional) place where something is worshipped or sacrificed to.
- […]now marking the end of ascetic rationalism, the monadology no longer implied a sacrifice of individuality on the altar of rationality.2000, Alain Renaut, M. B. De Bevoise, “Hegel and Nietzsche”, in Era of the Individual: A Contribution to a History of Subjectivity, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, →ISBN, →OCLC, →OL, page 129, lines 19–25:
- Derived terms
33 terms
altarage, altar bell, altar boy, altar bread, altar call, altar card, altar carpet, altar cloth, altar-cloth, altared, altar girl, altar guild, altarist, altarless, altarlet, altarlike, altar of repose, altarpiece, altar poem, altar screen, altar server, altar society, altar stone, altar-stone, altar tomb, altarware, altar wine, altarwise, high altar, Lady altar, lead someone to the altar, leave someone at the altar, superaltar