shrine

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English schrine, inherited from Old English scrīn (“ark of the covenant; chest, coffer; case for relics”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} an early borrowing from Latin scrīnium (“a case or box for keeping books or papers”), of unknown origin.^[2][3][4][7] The Latin word was taken into the other Germanic languages too: Old Frisian skrīn, Middle Low German schrīn, schrijn, Old High German scrīni (modern Schrein) and Old Norse skrín.^[8][5][3][9] Weekley calls it an early Church word, though some of these languages used it for any casket.^[10] The Romance languages have it as escrin, French écrin (“a jewel case”) and scrigno.^[2][10][11] Klein, Partridge and Merriam-Webster suggest that the Latin word may be related to curvus (“curved”), from a root meaning "to bend".^[12][11][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Old English, a box, coffer or chest, used by Ælfric of the Ark of the Covenant, and a case for the relics of a saint.^[8][2][5] Barnhart dates the Old English word to about 1000, and schryne, a case holding a holy object, to about 1280.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The plain sense "box, chest" died out in the 17th century.^[8][9] From the reliquary the word spread to the tomb of a saint and a decorated case for a dead body, recorded in Chaucer (c1385),^[8][5] and, in Tyndale's translation of Acts (1526), to any receptacle of a sacred object, as the silver shrines made for Diana.^[8] In the 17th century it came to mean a place of worship, a temple or church: Milton used it so in 1645.^[8][5] Chaucer had already used it for anything that encloses or holds something, and figurative uses for a person or thing that is venerated or idolized are recorded from before 1577.^[8] Johnson (1755) defined it as "a case in which something sacred is reposited".^[14] The verb, to put relics in a shrine, is recorded from c1290 in the South English Legendary;^[8] Chaucer used it for "to canonize" (a1400), and since 1578 it has meant to enshrine in one's heart.^[8][9]

Timeline

• Old English – a box or chest; a case for relics.^[8]
• c1290 – verb, to enclose relics in a shrine.^[8]
• c1385 – a tomb or coffin.^[8]
• a1400 – something that encloses or holds.^[8]
• 1526 – a receptacle of an object of worship.^[8]
• 1645 – a place of worship, a temple.^[8]
• 1658 – last record of the sense "box, chest".^[8]
• 1833 – the part of a church in which a shrine stands.^[8]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A place regarded as holy because of its association with a sacred person or object, visited by pilgrims: a shrine to the Virgin Mary.
2. A container for sacred relics; a reliquary.
3. The tomb of a saint or other holy person.
4. A place honoured for its association with a famous person or event: The stadium has become a shrine for football fans.
5. (Roman Catholic Church) A niche, shelf or small structure holding a statue or picture of Christ, the Virgin Mary or a saint.

Verb

1. (archaic) To enshrine; to place in or as if in a shrine.

Word family

• shrineless
• shrinelike
• unshrined
• enshrine

Related words

• scrinium
• reliquary

Usage notes

In Northamptonshire dialect, beans in the harvest field were said to be well shrined when they were dry enough to carry.^[15]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ a b Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
12. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
13. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)