temple

Forms

temple m (plural temples)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French temple, borrowed from Latin templum (“space marked out by the augur, consecrated space, temple”).^[2][3][4][5] The late 10th-century Passion still writes the Latin form.^[2][6]

In Latin the word was a term of augury: the square space the augur marked out in the sky and on the ground, within which he observed and read the omens.^[3][2] By extension it meant the whole sky, the regions of the underworld and the plains of the sea, and a place or building consecrated to the gods.^[3] According to Festus it was also a builder's word for a beam laid across the rafters.^[3] The Latin word is compared, only approximately, with Ancient Greek τέμενος (témenos, “sacred enclosure”) and the root of τέμνω (témnō, “to cut”).^[3][7] Cognate with Old Occitan temple, Spanish templo and Italian tempio.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Chanson de Roland (about 1100) it names the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem: Si violat le temple Salomon “he profaned the temple of Solomon”.^[2][8][7]

Semantic evolution

At first the word belonged to Jewish antiquity, the Temple of Jerusalem par excellence.^[3] From about 1155 (Wace) it also meant a Christian church, a sense later replaced by église and kept only in elevated style (1643, Corneille).^[2][3] From the second half of the 12th century it was used for any building of worship in any religion (temple Baal, about 1170), and for the temples of Egypt, Greece and Rome.^[2][3] After the Reformation (1535) it became the name of the Protestant place of worship, opposed to église.^[2][3] During the Revolution it served the cult of Reason (1793).^[2][3] The Roman augural sense was taken up in 1558 by Du Bellay.^[2]

From about 1174 le Temple also named the military order founded in Jerusalem in 1119 near the site of Solomon's temple, then its fortified house in Paris and the quarter around it.^[3][2] Its knights are the templiers (about 1220, earlier tramplier 1205), whose supposed revels gave boire comme un templier (1532).^[3][4] Figurative phrases include le temple de Mémoire (1658, La Fontaine) and erotic uses such as temple de Cypris (1627) and temple de Vénus for a brothel (late 17th century).^[2][3] In 1875 it names a Masonic lodge's meeting place.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1100 – The Chanson de Roland names the temple of Solomon.^[2]
• 1155 – Wace uses it for a pagan temple and for a Christian church.^[2]
• 1174–1176 – Guernes de Pont-Sainte-Maxence writes maistre del Temple, of the Templars' order.^[2]
• c. 1220 – Templier is recorded.^[3]
• 1535 – It is used for a Protestant place of worship.^[2][3]
• 1558 – Du Bellay uses it for the augur's space in the sky.^[2]
• 1627 – Temple de Cypris appears in the Parnasse des Muses.^[2]
• 1793 – A Temple de la Raison is recorded in Toulouse.^[2]
• 1875 – The Larousse records it for a Masonic meeting place.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A public building dedicated to the worship of a god: un temple grec, un temple bouddhiste.^[9][10]
2. A Protestant church: aller au temple le dimanche.^[9][1]
3. Le Temple: the Temple of Jerusalem, built by Solomon.^[10][7]
4. (history) Le Temple: the military order of the Templars, founded during the first crusades.^[9][2]
5. (literary) A place where something is honoured, a shrine: un temple de la gastronomie.^[2][1]
6. (Roman antiquity) The space marked out by the augur for taking the auspices.^[2][7]

Word family

• templier

Related words

• Latin templum

Usage notes

A different temple, feminine in Littré, from the Latin sense “beam”, named a bar used to keep cloth stretched on a loom (1281) and a wheelwright's tool; it was used until the 19th century, and its diminutive templet and the feminine tempe (both 1765) took over the sense.^[3][7] Anglo-Norman also had temple “side of the forehead”, which has a separate source, Latin tempus.^[11]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 13/1, 179a
6. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
7. ^ a b c d e f Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b c Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
10. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
11. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)