altar English · revision 39576

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=early Old English, King Alfred's translation of Gregory's Pastoral Care|origins=la altāre}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * UK: /ˈɒl.tə/, /ˈɔːl.tə/^(Wiktionary)

+ * US: /ˈɔl.tɚ/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[inh|enm|alter]], [[inh|ang|altar]] (also ''alter''),^(Etymonline)^(SOED 2002)^(Hoad 1986) [[bor|la|altāre]], a word more often used in the plural [[m|la|altāria]].^(OED 2026)^(Barnhart 1995)^(Hoad 1986) In Latin it meant a raised structure on which offerings were placed or sacrificed, and the offerings themselves;^(OED 2026) Christian writers used it for the altar of a church from Tertullian on.^(OED 2026) The OED, revising the entry in 2012, explains it as the noun use of an unrecorded adjective formed on the base of [[m|la|adoleō|t=to burn, cremate]],^(OED 2026) and Etymonline, Barnhart, Klein, Hoad and Ayto likewise connect it with that verb, so that an altar was first a place for burnt offerings.^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1995)^(Klein 1966)^(Hoad 1986)^(Ayto 2005) Barnhart's full edition adds [[sa|अलात|tr=alāta|t=firebrand]] and a root meaning "burn".^(Barnhart 1988)^(MWU 2024) The Latin word was associated by popular etymology with [[m|la|altus|t=high]], since altars often stood in high places;^(OED 2026)^(Klein 1966) Skeat, Collins and the Oxford Dictionary of English still derive it from that adjective,^(Skeat 1911)^(Collins 2023)^(ODE 2010) a view that Ayto says is no longer generally accepted.^(Ayto 2005) Old English borrowed the Latin word twice, as an earlier ''alter'' and a later [[m|ang|altare]].^(OED 2026) In Middle English the usual form was ''auter'', from [[m|fro|auter]],^(Barnhart 1995)^(Etymonline)^(AND) until the Latin spelling ''altar'' was restored in the 16th century.^(Barnhart 1995)^(Etymonline) The Germanic cognates, such as [[osx|altari]] and [[goh|altāri]], are borrowings of the same Latin word.^(Hoad 1986)^(SOED 2002)

+

+ ==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''.^(OED 2026) The altar of a Christian church, where the Eucharist is celebrated, is also found in Old English, in the Rule of St Benet.^(OED 2026)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ The word came with Christianity, and Old English applied it especially to the Christian altar,^(Hoad 1986)^(Johnson 1755) while the native word, ''wēofod'' or ''wīgbed'', literally "idol table", covered both.^(Hoad 1986)^(Weekley 1921) Johnson, following Junius, noted that ''altar'' entered all the European languages with Christianity.^(Johnson 1755) 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;^(OED 2026) Weekley says the modern spelling was settled by the religious disputes of the 16th century, when Protestants preferred "the Lord's table".^(Weekley 1921) The altar as the place of the wedding service, as in ''lead to the altar'', is recorded from 1653,^(OED 2026)^(SOED 2002) and Etymonline dates it as a symbol of marriage by 1820.^(Etymonline) Figurative altars appear by about 1450, and the phrase ''to sacrifice at (or on) the altar of'' is found from 1770.^(OED 2026) 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).^(OED 2026)^(Collins 2023) In American underworld slang of the 1920s and 1930s an ''altar'' was a toilet.^(GDoS)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * early Old English – a structure for sacrifices to a god.^(OED 2026)

+ * Old English – the altar of a Christian church.^(OED 2026)

+ * c. 1200 – ''altar-cloth''.^(Etymonline)

+ * 1389 – a side altar before a shrine or image.^(OED 2026)

+ * c. 1450 – figurative use.^(OED 2026)

+ * 1549 – the communion table of the Church of England.^(OED 2026)

+ * 1556 – the constellation Ara.^(OED 2026)

+ * 1633 – a poem in the shape of an altar.^(OED 2026)

+ * 1653 – the altar as the place of marriage;^(OED 2026) by 1820 in Etymonline.^(Etymonline)

+ * 1770 – ''to sacrifice at the altar of''.^(OED 2026)

+ * 1807 – a step in the side of a dry dock.^(OED 2026)

+ * 1927 – (US slang) a toilet.^(GDoS)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A raised structure on which [[sacrifice]]s or offerings are made to a god, or [[incense]] is burned.^(Collins 2023)^(MWU 2024)

+ # (Christianity) The table at which [[communion]] is celebrated in a church.^(Collins 2023)^(OED 2026)

+ # 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.''^(MWU 2024)^(OED 2026)

+ # (shipbuilding) A step in the sloping wall of a [[dry dock]].^(Collins 2023)^(OED 2026)

+

+ ==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".^(Etymonline)^(Collins 2023) The phrase ''lead to the altar'' is an informal way of saying "marry".^(Collins 2023)^(SOED 2002)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}