altar

From Middle English alter, from Old English alter, altar (“altar”), taken from Latin altare (“altar”), probably related to adolere (“burn”); thus "burning place", influenced by altus (“high”).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɔːl.tə/, /ˈɒl.tə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɔl.tɚ/, /ˈɑl.tɚ/
• (Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈɑl.tɚ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔːltə(ɹ)
• Homophone: alter
• Hyphenation: al‧tar

altar (plural altars)

1. A table or similar flat-topped structure used for religious rites.
2. (informal) A raised area around an altar in a church; the sanctuary.
3. (figuratively) Anything that is worshipped or sacrificed to.
   • 2000, Alain Renaut, ‎M. B. De Bevoise, Era of the Individual: A Contribution to a History of Subjectivity

     […] now marking the end of ascetic rationalism, the monadology no longer implied a sacrifice of individuality on the altar of rationality.

• altar boy
• altar poem
• altarpiece
• high altar

• artal, talar

From Old Occitan, from Latin altāre.

• (Balearic, Central) IPA^(key): /əlˈta/
• (Valencian) IPA^(key): /alˈtaɾ/
• Rhymes: -a(ɾ)

altar m (plural altars)

1. altar

From Middle High German alter, altære, from Old High German altāri, from Latin altāre. Cognate with German Altar.

altar m (uncountable)

1. (Sette Comuni) altar

• “altar” in Martalar, Umberto Martello; Bellotto, Alfonso (1974) Dizionario della lingua Cimbra dei Sette Communi vicentini, 1st edition, Roana, Italy: Instituto di Cultura Cimbra A. Dal Pozzo

From Old Norse altari, from Old Saxon altari, from Latin altare (“altar”), cognates with Danish alter (“altar”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈal̥.taɹ/

altar n (genitive singular altars, plural altar)

1. altar

From Old Portuguese altar, from Latin altāre.

• IPA^(key): /alˈtaɾ/

altar m (plural altares)

1. altar
   • 1370, Ramón Lorenzo (ed.), Crónica troiana. A Coruña: Fundación Barrié, page 660:

     et talloulle a cabeça dentro ẽno tẽplo, ante o altar.

     and he cut his head, inside in the temple, before the altar.

• ara

• “altar” in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval, SLI - ILGA 2006-2012.
• “altar” in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega, SLI - ILGA 2006-2013.
• “altar” in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega. Santiago: ILG.

Borrowed from Latin altāre, through Dutch altaar.

altar

1. altar

• IPA^(key): [ˈal̪ˠt̪ˠəɾˠ]

altar

1. present indicative autonomous of alt
2. imperative autonomous of alt
3. present subjunctive autonomous of alt

• altāre
• altārium

Found mainly in post-Classical Latin. In Classical Latin, used mostly in plural form altaria. Ultimately from adolere and influenced by altus. See also other forms altāre and altārium.

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈal.tar/, [ˈaɫ.tar]

altar n (genitive altāris); third declension

1. altar (for burnt offerings)

Third declension neuter “pure” i-stem.

• Romanian: altar

• altar in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• altar in The Perseus Project (1999) Perseus Encyclopedia‎

altar m (plural altaryn)

1. (religion) altar

Ultimately from Latin altar, probably through late Old Norse altari and Old Saxon altari.

• alter

altar n (definite singular altaret, indefinite plural altar, definite plural altara)

1. an altar

altar m

1. indefinite plural of alt

From Proto-Germanic *aldrą, whence also Old English ealdor, Old Norse aldr.

altar n

1. age

• Middle High German: alter
  • Alemannic German: Altar
  • Bavarian: Oida
  • German: Alter
    • → Luxembourgish: Alter
  • Yiddish: אַלטער‎ (alter)

From Latin altāre (“altar for burnt offerings”). Cf. also outeiro.

• IPA^(key): /al.ˈtaɾ/

altar m (plural altares)

1. altar (flat structure used for religious rites)
   • 13th century, attributed to Alfonso X of Castile, Cantigas de Santa Maria, E codex, cantiga 7 (facsimile):

     Eſta e como ſanta Maria liurou a Abadeſſa prenne q̇ adormecera anto ſeu Altar chorando.

     This one is about how Holy Mary acquitted the pregnant abbess who had fallen asleep crying in front of her altar.

• Galician: altar
• Portuguese: altar

From Old Portuguese altar, from Latin altāre (“altar for burnt offerings”). Cf. also outeiro.

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /aɫ.ˈtaɾ/
• (Paulista) IPA^(key): /aw.ˈtaɾ/, /aw.ˈtaɹ/
• (South Brazil) IPA^(key): /aw.ˈtaɾ/, /aw.ˈtaɻ/

altar m (plural altares)

1. altar (flat structure used for religious rites)

• altariu (dated, rare)

From Latin altārium or altār, with the plural deriving from altāria. Compare oltar, a rare and dated variant which derives from the same source via a Slavic intermediary.

altar n (plural altare)

1. altar
2. communion table
3. chancel
4. shrine, sanctuary

• (altar): pristol
• (sanctuary): sanctuar

From Old Spanish altar (attested as far back as the Cantar de Mio Cid[1]), from Latin altāre. See also otero.

• IPA^(key): /alˈtaɾ/, [al̪ˈt̪aɾ]

altar m (plural altares)

1. altar (a table used for religious rites)
2. stone that separates the firebox from the hearth in reverberatory furnaces

• “altar” in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014.