altar
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Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.
altar
- /ˈɒl.tə/ UK
- /ˈɔːl.tə/ UK
- /ˈɔl.tə/ British, Southern, Standard
- /ˈoːl.tə/ British, Southern, Standard
- /ˈɔl.tɚ/ US
- /ˈɑl.tɚ/ cot caught merger
- /ˈɔl.təɾ/ Scotland
Sounds like alter · Rhymes with -ɒltə(ɹ), -ɔːltə(ɹ)
Where it comes from
Inherited from Middle English auter, inherited from Old English altar and borrowed from Old French auter, both derived from Latin altāre, probably related to adolere (“burn”); thus "burning place", influenced by altus (“high”). Displaced native Middle English wēved.
noun altars
- A table or similar flat-topped structure used for religious rites. To hawke, or els to hunt From the auter to the funt, Wyth cry unreverent, Before the sacrament, Wythin the holy church bowndis, That of our fayth the grownd is.
- A raised area around an altar in a church; the sanctuary.
- Any (real or notional) place where something is worshipped or sacrificed to. […]now marking the end of ascetic rationalism, the monadology no longer implied a sacrifice of individuality on the altar of rationality.
