altar

Forms

altar n (genitive altāris); third declension^[1] Older and classical writers use only the plural altāria, -ium, also for a single altar.^[2][3][4] Singular forms appear from Petronius on: altāre (Festus, Isidore), altar (Prudentius) and altārium (an inscription, Jerome), with the ablative altārī in Petronius and the Vulgate.^[3][2][4]

Etymology

De Vaan, following Schrijver, derives it from ⟨*alto-⟩ “fed”, an old participle belonging with 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”.^[5] The OLD also compares ⟨adoleō⟩.^[4] The TLL takes it rather from altus (“high”), and Köbler and Wiktionary give both explanations.^[2][6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Pacuvius,^[6] who uses the plural for burnt offerings: someone prolongs life “with lifeless offerings”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

It is an altar for burnt offerings, often not distinguishable from āra.^[4] Cicero reproaches Catiline with the silver eagle at whose altars he had often turned his impious hand to the murder of citizens, and Curtius describes the Persians' sacred fire carried before them on silver altars.^[4] The grammarian Phocas lists it among words without a singular.^[2]

In Christian Latin it is the altar of a church,^[7][8] and in Medieval Latin also the chancel or choir around it, a side chapel, and the parish revenues that came from the altar.^[8]

Timeline

• 220–130 BC – Pacuvius of burnt offerings.^[4][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of Catiline's altars.^[4][6]
• before 66 AD – Petronius has the singular.^[2][3][6]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate has the ablative altārī.^[3][6]
• 348/49–c. 413 AD – Prudentius has the singular altar.^[3][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. An altar for burnt offerings.^[4][3][1]
2. (plural) Burnt offerings.^[4]
3. (Ecclesiastical Latin) The altar of a church.^[7][8]
4. (Medieval Latin) The chancel, choir; a side chapel; the revenues of an altar.^[8]

Related words

• adoleō
• āra

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b c d Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill