Other forms: shrines
A shrine is a small holy place built around a sacred object. A roadside shrine, visit the shrine, a shrine to the saint.
It is defined by what it holds rather than its size — a shrine can be a whole building or a niche in a wall. Roadside shrines to people killed in accidents are a modern version of a very old habit. The Latin scrinium meant a case for papers.
1nounshrineA small holy place built around a sacred object.
“Pilgrims light candles at the shrine that holds the saint's bones.”
shrine is a holy place.
Old English scrin comes from Latin scrinium, a case or chest for books and papers, then a reliquary.
Proto-Indo-European
*(s)ker- (turn)
Proto-Indo-European
*(s)ker- — to turn, bend
Medieval Latin
scrīnium — reliquary
Old English
scrīn — reliquary, ark of the covenant
Middle English
shryne
English, today
shrine
From Middle English shryne, from Old English scrīn (“reliquary, ark of the covenant”), from Medieval Latin scrīnium (“reliquary”), “case or chest for books or papers” in Classical Latin. Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European (s)ker- (“to turn, bend”). Compare Old Norse skrín, Old High German skrīni (German Schrein).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA