altare

Forms

altare m (plural altari, diminutive altarino)^[1] In the 13th and 14th centuries the word was often feminine, as in Boccaccio and in the Roman Miracole de Roma.^[2][3][4] Old forms include Old Italian alter (Piedmont, about 1200), Old Italian altar and Old Italian autar (Venice, 1312), Old Italian otar (Genoa), Old Italian atare (Tuscany) and Old Italian autare (Pisa).^[5][6] In the dialects of southern Italy the type autaru prevails.^[5][2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin altāre, a singular of later Latin beside altāria, the plural that classical Latin mostly used.^{[7][8][2][9][10]} As the only word for the altar that the Church accepted, it spread to all the Romance languages: French autel (earlier auter), Occitan autar, Catalan altar, Spanish altar, Portuguese altar, Romanian altar, Friulian altâr and Dalmatian altúr.^{[2][11][5][12]} The change of French ⟨-er⟩ to ⟨-el⟩ is unexplained.^[12] The word also passed into neighbouring languages, as into Old High German altari.^[5][2] The southern Italian type ⟨autaru⟩ was remade on the plural ⟨altaria⟩.^[2]

De Vaan, after Schrijver, derives altāria from Proto-Italic *alto- (“fed”), the past participle belonging to adoleō (“to burn as an offering”), with the suffix -ālis dissimilated to ⟨-āris⟩ after the ⟨l⟩ of the root: the altar was where the fire was fed.^[9][10][1] The verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h₂el- (“to grow, nourish”).^[9][1] DELI and Nocentini only bring the word close to the root of adoleō, and Treccani and Sabatini–Coletti call its origin uncertain.^{[13][11][14][15]} The Romans themselves explained it as a “high altar”, from altus (“high”) and āra (“altar”), as Isidore of Seville did.^[4][16]

Earliest recorded meaning

The oldest record is Old Piedmontese alter in the Sermoni subalpini, about 1200.^[5] The TLIO's first text is the Roman Miracole de Roma of the mid-13th century, which tells of a crowned virgin seen in the sky sopre una altare molto bella “upon a very beautiful altar”, for the stone or table on which offerings are made to God.^[6][4] About 1278 Soffredi del Grazia writes Chi l'altare serve, de l'altare de' vivere “who serves the altar must live by the altar”.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used altare for pagan and Christian altars alike, with phrases such as altare maggiore (also grande or maestro) for the main altar of a church, sacramento or sacrificio dell'altare for the Eucharist and the Mass, ministro dell'altare for the priest, and servire all'altare for saying or serving Mass.^[6] It also named the southern constellation Ara.^[6][1] Iacopone speaks of the bread consecrated on the altar, and Petrarch of cruel deeds done tra gli altari e tra le statue ignude.^[4]

The diminutive altarino “small altar” appears in the 16th century and “kneeler” in 1772.^[13] The phrase scoprire gli altarini “to reveal someone's misdeeds” had an earlier form scoprire gli altari in Ariosto.^[3] Anguillara calls the rocks that lie hidden under the sea altari, as sailors named them.^[16]

Figurative uses set the altar for glory and power, as in Manzoni's Due volte nella polvere, Due volte sull'altar.^[8] Technical senses followed in furnaces and in hydraulics.^[7][17]

Timeline

• About 1200 – Old Piedmontese alter appears in the Sermoni subalpini.^[5]
• Mid-13th century – The Roman Miracole de Roma uses altare as a feminine.^[6][4]
• About 1278 – Soffredi del Grazia uses altare.^[5]
• 1292 – Florentine altare is recorded.^[5]
• Before 1306 – Iacopone uses the word for the altar of the sacrament.^[13][7]
• 1305 – Venetian altare, altrare and atrare are recorded.^[5]
• Before 1563 – Altarino “small altar” appears in G. B. Gelli.^[13]
• 1772 – D'Alberti records altarino “kneeler”.^[13]
• Before 1865 – Contraltare is recorded.^[11]
• 1921 – The Unknown Soldier is buried at the Altare della Patria in Rome.^[18]

Meanings

Noun

1. In ancient and pagan religion, a raised table or stone on which sacrifices were offered to a god; an ara.^[7][8][18]
2. In Christian churches, the consecrated table at which the priest celebrates the Eucharist: Il sagrestano preparò i fiori per l'altare.^[7][8][15]
3. By extension, the area round the altar reserved for the clergy, often richly decorated.^[7]
4. (figurative) A position of the highest honour or power.^[7][8]
5. (technology) In a reverberatory furnace, the low wall of firebrick that separates the fireplace from the heating chamber.^[7][17][19]
6. (hydraulics) The top of a siphon, where the pressure is below atmospheric pressure.^[7][15][19]

Word family

• altarino
• contraltare
• altarista

Related words

• ara
• Latin altāre

Usage notes

Andare all'altare is to get married, condurre all'altare to marry someone, levare sugli altari to make a saint of someone or to praise someone to the skies, and il trono e l'altare the monarchy and the Church.^[18][8][14] The Altare della Patria is the central part of the monument to Victor Emmanuel II in Rome.^[18][14] In Christian use ara has become almost only a poetic word.^[16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 144
3. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 44
4. ^ a b c d e f Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 2, 229
6. ^ a b c d e Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
11. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
12. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
13. ^ a b c d e Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
15. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
16. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
17. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
18. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
19. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli