temple

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See also: Temple and templé

English

Pronunciation

  • enPR: tĕm'p(ə)l, IPA(key): /ˈtɛmp(ə)l/
  • Audio (UK)(file)
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɛmpəl

Etymology 1

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia
The Temple of Isis from Philae (Egypt)
Maison Carrée from Nîmes (France), one of the best preserved Roman temples to survive in the territory of the former Roman Empire
Ryusenji temple from Osaka (Japan)

From Middle English temple, from Old English templ, tempel, borrowed from Latin templum (“shrine, temple, area for auspices”). Compare Old High German tempal (“temple”), also a borrowing from the Latin.

Noun

temple (plural temples)

  1. A house of worship, especially:
    1. A house of worship dedicated to a polytheistic faith.
      The temple of Zeus was very large.
      • 1974, Donald R. DeGlopper, “Religion and Ritual in Lukang”, in Arthur P. Wolf, editor, Religion and Ritual in Chinese Society (Studies in Chinese Society)‎, Stanford: Stanford University Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 46:
        As of October 1968 Lukang, which had a resident population of between 27,000 and 28,000 people, had 39 temples. It is my impression that Lukang has more temples than do most Taiwanese communities of equivalent size. By temple I mean a structure that houses an image, altar, and incense pot, and is freely accessible to the general public. In speaking of the 39 temples of Lukang, I am omitting the numerous small shrines to the unknown dead (Yu Ying Kung), buildings dedicated to ancestors rather than deities (two), Christian churches (four), incense-burner associations that keep their incense pot or image in private homes, and private shrines such as the domestic altars of tang-ki (spirit mediums) or the shrine of the now defunct Ch'üan-chou guild, found in the back room of a drugstore endowed with the guild property.[...]Lukang, seen in comparative perspective, has a lot of temples.
    2. (Judaism) Synonym of synagogue, especially a non-Orthodox synagogue.
      How often do you go to temple?
    3. (Mormonism) As opposed to an LDS meetinghouse, a church closed to non-Mormons and necessary for particular rituals.
  2. A meeting house of the Oddfellows fraternity; its members.
  3. (figurative) Any place regarded as holding a religious presence.
  4. (figurative) Any place seen as an important centre for some activity.
    a temple of commerce; a temple of drinking and dining
  5. (figurative) Anything regarded as important or minutely cared for.
    My body is my temple.
  6. (figurative) A gesture wherein the forefingers are outstretched and touch pad to pad while the other fingers are clasped together.
    • 2010, James LePore, A World I Never Made, page 251:
      Again Abdullah listened intently, his eyes closed, his ten fingers forming a temple of his hands in front of him.
Usage notes
  • This word is rarely used in English to refer to a Christian house of worship, especially in Western Christianity.
Synonyms
Hyponyms
Coordinate terms
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Verb

temple (third-person singular simple present temples, present participle templing, simple past and past participle templed)

  1. (transitive) To build a temple for; to appropriate a temple to; to temple a god
    • 1623, Owen Feltham, Resolves: Divine, Moral, Political:
      though the Heathen (in many places) Templed and adored this drunken God

Etymology 2

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Wikipedia
Temple in anatomy

From Middle English temple, from Old French temple, from Vulgar Latin *temp(u)la, from Latin tempora (“the temples”), plural of tempus (“temple, head, face”). See temporal bone.

Noun

temple (plural temples)

  1. (anatomy) The slightly flatter region, on either side of the human head, behind the eye and forehead, above the zygomatic arch, and forward of the ear.
  2. (ophthalmology) Either of the sidepieces on a set of spectacles, extending backwards from the hinge toward the ears and, usually, turning down around them.
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations

Etymology 3

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Borrowed from Latin templum (“a small timber, a purlin”); compare templet and template.

Noun

temple (plural temples)

  1. (weaving) A contrivance used in a loom for keeping the web stretched transversely.
Translations

Further reading

Anagrams

Catalan

Etymology

From Latin templum.

Pronunciation

Noun

temple m (plural temples)

  1. temple (building)

Derived terms

Further reading

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French temple, borrowed from Latin templum, from Proto-Indo-European *t(e)mp-lo-s, from the root *temp- (“to stretch, string”).

Pronunciation

Noun

temple m (plural temples)

  1. temple (for worship)
  2. hall
    Le Temple de la renommée du hockey.
    The Hockey Hall of Fame.

Derived terms

Further reading

Old French

Etymology 1

From Vulgar Latin *temp(u)la, from Latin tempora, plural of tempus.

Noun

temple oblique singular, m (oblique plural temples, nominative singular temples, nominative plural temple)

  1. (anatomy) temple
Descendants
  • French: tempe
  • → Middle English: temple

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Latin templum.

Noun

temple oblique singular, m (oblique plural temples, nominative singular temples, nominative plural temple)

  1. temple (building where religious services take place)
Descendants

Old Spanish

Etymology

From Old Occitan temple or Old French temple. Compare the inherited tiemplo and the learned form templo, all ultimately from Latin templum.

Pronunciation

Noun

temple m (plural temples)

  1. temple
    • c. 1200, Almerich, Fazienda de Ultramar, f. 53v:
      embiol ael aſenachaerib toda la plata q̃ pudo trobar en la del criador. e el teſoro de los reẏſ. eſtoz cranto ezechias las puertas del temple e todo quanto pudo aù embiolo al reẏ de ſiria esto peſo al criador
      He sent Sennacherib all the silver he could find in the of the Creator and the treasury of the kings. Then Hezekiah broke the doors of the temple and all that there was he sent to the king of Assyria. This weighed upon the Creator.

Synonyms

Romanian

Noun

temple

  1. plural of templu

Spanish

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈtemple/
  • Rhymes: -emple
  • Syllabification: tem‧ple

Etymology 1

Deverbal from templar.

Noun

temple m (plural temples)

  1. mood; humour (of a person)
    • 1897, Benito Pérez Galdós, Misericordia:
      Halló a Doña Paca de mal temple, porque se había parecido en la casa, muy de mañana, un dependiente de la tienda, y habíala insultado […]
      found Doña Paca in a bad mood, because very early in the morning a shopkeeper showed up at the house, and had insulted her
  2. mettle; courage; spunk
  3. tempering
  4. temperature
  5. (music) tuning
  6. (bullfighting) a move of the cape before a charge
Derived terms

Etymology 2

Verb

temple

  1. inflection of templar:
    1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
    2. third-person singular imperative

Further reading

Wikious
Boobota
Sagapedia