altar

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English alter, inherited from Old English altar (also alter),^[2][3][4] borrowed from Latin altāre, a word more often used in the plural altāria.^[5][6][4] In Latin it meant a raised structure on which offerings were placed or sacrificed, and the offerings themselves;^[5] Christian writers used it for the altar of a church from Tertullian on.^[5] The OED, revising the entry in 2012, explains it as the noun use of an unrecorded adjective formed on the base of adoleō (“to burn, cremate”),^[5] and Etymonline, Barnhart, Klein, Hoad and Ayto likewise connect it with that verb, so that an altar was first a place for burnt offerings.^{[2][6][7][4][8]} Barnhart's full edition adds Sanskrit अलात (alāta, “firebrand”) and a root meaning "burn".^[9][10] The Latin word was associated by popular etymology with altus (“high”), since altars often stood in high places;^[5][7] Skeat, Collins and the Oxford Dictionary of English still derive it from that adjective,^[11][12][13] a view that Ayto says is no longer generally accepted.^[8] Old English borrowed the Latin word twice, as an earlier alter and a later altare.^[5] In Middle English the usual form was auter, from auter,^[6][2][14] until the Latin spelling altar was restored in the 16th century.^[6][2] The Germanic cognates, such as Old Saxon altari and Old High German altāri, are borrowings of the same Latin word.^[4][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A raised structure on which offerings were made to a god: early Old English, in King Alfred's translation of Gregory's Pastoral Care.^[5] The altar of a Christian church, where the Eucharist is celebrated, is also found in Old English, in the Rule of St Benet.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The word came with Christianity, and Old English applied it especially to the Christian altar,^[4][15] while the native word, wēofod or wīgbed, literally "idol table", covered both.^[4][16] Johnson, following Junius, noted that altar entered all the European languages with Christianity.^[15] From 1389 it could be a side altar before a shrine or image, and the 1549 Book of Common Prayer uses it for the communion table of the Church of England;^[5] Weekley says the modern spelling was settled by the religious disputes of the 16th century, when Protestants preferred "the Lord's table".^[16] The altar as the place of the wedding service, as in lead to the altar, is recorded from 1653,^[5][3] and Etymonline dates it as a symbol of marriage by 1820.^[2] Figurative altars appear by about 1450, and the phrase to sacrifice at (or on) the altar of is found from 1770.^[5] The word also named the southern constellation Ara (1556), a poem printed in the shape of an altar, as in George Herbert's The Temple (1633), and, in shipbuilding, the steps in the sloping sides of a dry dock (1807).^[5][12] In American underworld slang of the 1920s and 1930s an altar was a toilet.^[17]

Timeline

• early Old English – a structure for sacrifices to a god.^[5]
• Old English – the altar of a Christian church.^[5]
• c. 1200 – altar-cloth.^[2]
• 1389 – a side altar before a shrine or image.^[5]
• c. 1450 – figurative use.^[5]
• 1549 – the communion table of the Church of England.^[5]
• 1556 – the constellation Ara.^[5]
• 1633 – a poem in the shape of an altar.^[5]
• 1653 – the altar as the place of marriage;^[5] by 1820 in Etymonline.^[2]
• 1770 – to sacrifice at the altar of.^[5]
• 1807 – a step in the side of a dry dock.^[5]
• 1927 – (US slang) a toilet.^[17]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A raised structure on which sacrifices or offerings are made to a god, or incense is burned.
2. (Christianity) The table at which communion is celebrated in a church.
3. Something to which other things are given up, in phrases such as on the altar of: They gave up their weekends on the altar of profit.
4. (shipbuilding) A step in the sloping wall of a dry dock.

Word family

• altarage
• altarpiece
• altar boy
• altar call
• altar server
• high altar
• altar bread
• altar card

Related words

• alter

Usage notes

Altar is a different word from the verb alter, which comes from Latin alter, "other".^[2][12] The phrase lead to the altar is an informal way of saying "marry".^[12][3]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
15. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
17. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com