Other forms: altars
An altar is the table at the holy end of a church, the one with the cloth over it and the candles on top, where the priest stands with his back to you or his face towards you depending on the church. In older religions it is the raised stone where offerings were laid out or burned.
Two phrases carry the word out of the building. Led to the altar means married; jilted at the altar means abandoned at the last possible moment, in the dress, in front of everyone you invited. Sacrificed on the altar of something means given up for the sake of it — jobs sacrificed on the altar of profit. Watch the spelling, because altar is the table and alter is to change, and they sound identical. Outside Christianity the word does plain work: a stone altar on a hilltop, an altar in a temple with fruit and incense set out on it.
1nounaltarThe table at the front of a church, used in religious services.
“Two candles burned at either end of the altar.”
2nountableA raised stone or structure where offerings are made to a god.
“They found a stone altar half buried at the top of the hill.”
Altar comes from Latin altāre, probably related to adolere, to burn — a burning place — and pulled towards altus, high, along the way. It entered English twice over: Old English took altar straight from Latin, and Middle English also had auter from Old French. It pushed out the native English word for the thing, wēved.
Latin
altāre
Old French
auter
Old English
altar
Middle English
auter
English, today
altar
Built from
Middle English auter, Old English altar and Old French auter, both Latin altāre, probably related to adolere (“burn”); thus "burning place", influenced by altus (“high”). Displaced native wēved.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA