Other forms: steeples
A steeple is a tower with a pointed top on a church. A village steeple, the church steeple, seen from the steeple.
Strictly the steeple is tower and spire together, and a spire alone is the pointed part — though few people keep the distinction. They were built tall to be seen and heard from far off, and steeplechase is named from racing across country towards one. Note that the word is steep plus an old ending.
1nounsteepleA tower with a pointed top on a church.
“The church steeple could be seen for miles across the flat fields.”
steeple is a tower.
Old English stiepel comes from the root of steep plus an ending. A steeple is literally a steep thing.
Proto-Germanic
*staupilaz — that which is steep, tower, steeple
Proto-West Germanic
*staupil
Old English
stīpel
Middle English
stepel
English, today
steeple
Built from
From Middle English stepel, from Old English stīpel, stȳpel, stīepel (“tower, steeple”), from Proto-West Germanic staupil, from Proto-Germanic staupilaz (“that which is steep, tower, steeple”), equivalent to steep + -le. Cognate with Old Norse stǫpull (“tower, steeple”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA