altar








noun

  1. an elevated place or structure, as a mound or platform, at which religious rites are performed or on which sacrifices are offered to gods, ancestors, etc.
  2. Ecclesiastical. communion table.
  3. (initial capital letter) Astronomy. the constellation Ara.
  4. (in a dry dock) a ledge for supporting the feet of shorings.
Idioms
  1. lead to the altar, to marry: After a five-year courtship, he led her to the altar.

noun

  1. a raised place or structure where sacrifices are offered and religious rites performed
  2. (in Christian churches) the communion table
  3. a step in the wall of a dry dock upon which structures supporting a vessel can stand
  4. lead to the altar informal to marry
n.

Old English alter, altar, from Latin altare (plural altaria) “high altar, altar for sacrifice to the great gods,” perhaps originally meaning “burnt offerings” (cf. Latin adolere “to worship, to offer sacrifice, to honor by burning sacrifices to”), but influenced by Latin altus “high.” In Middle English, often auter, from Old French auter. Reintroduced from Latin 1500s. As a symbol of marriage, by 1820.

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