Forms: 1–2 templ, tempel, (3 Orm. temmple), 3– temple. Also 4 tempel, -ele, -ile, -ille, (templee), 4–6 tempil(l, -yll, 5 -yl(e, -ul, 5–6 -ull(e, 6 -ell. [OE. templ, tempel, ad. L. templum; reinforced in ME. by F. temple (10th c. in Godef., Compl.) = Pr. temple, Sp., Pg. templo, It. tempio:—L. templum.]
I. 1. An edifice or place regarded primarily as the dwelling place or ‘house’ of a deity or deities; hence, an edifice devoted to divine worship.
a. In a general sense. (Often, as in quot. c. 825, going back to a specific use.)
Cave- or cavern-temple, a natural cave used as a temple.
c. 825. Vesp. Psalter, xlvii. 10. We onfengun god mildheortnisse ðine in midle temples ðines. Ibid., lxxviii. 1. Tempel haliʓ ðin.
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., A. 1061. Chapel ne temple þat euer watz set.
14[?]. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 626/2. Tempulle, templum.
1526. Tindale, Acts vii. 48. But be that is hyest of all dweleth not in temples made with hondes.
1529. More, Dyaloge, I. God is as myghtye in the stable as in the temple.
1610. Shaks., Temp., IV. i. 153. The Clowd-capt Towres, the gorgeous Pallaces, the solemn Temples, the great Globe it selfe … shall dissolue.
1642. Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., III. xxiv. 219. Take Teinple for a covered standing structure, and the Jews had none till the time of Solomon.
1832. Disraeli, Cont. Flem., V. iv. There is not a more beautiful and solemn temple in the world, than the great Cathedral of Seville.
1837. Prichard, Phys. Hist. Man. (ed. 3), II. 243. The great cavern-temple of Tulzis.
a. 1845. Syd. Smith, in Lady Holland, Mem. (1855), I. iii. 55. The true Christian … loves the good, under whatever temple, at whatever altar he may find them.
1850. Leitch, trans. C. O. Müller’s Anc. Art, § 52. 26. The simplest temples (σηκοι) of the primitive ages were merely hollow trees in which images were placed.
b. Historically applied to the sacred buildings of the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, and other ancient nations; now, to those of Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Shintoism, and the ethnic religions generally.
971. Blickl. Hom., 221. He maniʓ templ & deofolgyld ʓebræc & ʓefylde.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Hom., II. 574. [Hi] ðam fela templa arærdon.
c. 1205. Lay., 10178. Alle þa templen [c. 1275 temples] þe þa heðene hafden itimbrid.
1297. R. Glouc. (Rolls), 318. A temple hii vovnde vair inou & a maumet amidde.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, v. (Johannes), 293. Þe tempil of dyane.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 1358. All tight to þe tempull of þere tore goddes.
1596. Dalrymple, trans. Leslie’s Hist. Scot., II. (S.T.S.), 135, margin. Tempilis & places of sacrifice to prophane Godis.
1634. Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 205. The Citie [Meaco in Japan] has seuenty Temples, in one of which are set three thousand three hundred thirty three gilded Idols.
1667. Milton, P. L., I. 402. The wisest heart Of Solomon he [Moloch] led by fraud to build His Temple right against the Temple of God.
1756–7. trans. Keysler’s Trav. (1700), II. 441. The temple of the Sibylla Tiburtina spoken of by Lactantius.
1860. Gardner, Faiths World, II. 588/2. Pagoda … In Hindustan, Burmah, and China … implies a temple in which idols are worshipped. Ibid., 894/1. Their [Taoists] priests live in the temples, and are supported by the produce of the grounds attached to the establishment.
c. spec. The sacred edifice (or any one of the successive edifices) at Jerusalem, the ‘House of the Lord,’ and seat of the Jewish worship of Jehovah.
c. 897. K. Ælfred, Gregory’s Past. C., xxxvi. 252. Þa stanas on ðæm mæran temple Salomonnes wæron ær swæ wel ʓefeʓede.
971. Blickl. Hom., 27. He hine asette ofer þæs temples scylf.
c. 1000. Ags. Gosp., Matt. iv. 5. Ða ʓebrohte se deofol hine … and asette hine ofer þæs temples heahnesse.
c. 1200. Ormin, 11880. Te deofell brohhte Crist Uppo þatt hallȝhe temmple.
c. 1325. Metr. Hom., 75. In the temple fand thai than Seynt Symeon.
1382. Wyclif, Matt. xxi. 12. Jhesus entride in to the temple of God.
a. 1425. Cursor M., 10946 (Laud). Zakarie to tempille yede. Ibid., 13745 (Trin.). Ihesu … say noon in þe tempul leued.
1533. Gau, Richt Vay (S.T.S.), 23. The rewlers of the tempil and the cheif prestis.
1611. Bible, John viii. 2. Earely in the morning hee came againe into the Temple.
1877. C. Geikie, Christ, lvii. (1879), 692. The Temple was built of white stones of great size, the length of each about 371/2 ft., some even 45 ft.
d. transf. and fig.
c. 1607. Donne, Lett., to Sir H. Goodere, 14 Aug. (1651), 116. That time [for the outward service] to me towards you is Tuesday, and my Temple, the Rose in Smith-field.
1771. Junius Lett., lix. (1820), 311. The temple of fame is the shortest passage to riches and preferment.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. ii. 19. A temple of science now in ruins.
1877. C. Geikie, Christ, xxxi. (1879), 370. The true worship has its temple in the inmost soul.
1879. Stainer, Music of Bible, 5. Whose temple of worship was the canopy of heaven.
2. transf. A building dedicated to public Christian worship; a church: esp. applied to a large or grand edifice.
1399. Langl., Rich. Redeles, Prol. 3. A temple of þe trinite [in Bristol] … That cristis chirche is cleped.
1538. Starkey, England, II. i. 176. Magnyfycal and gudly housys, fayr tempullys and churchys.
1560. Daus, trans. Sleidane’s Comm., 367. Whan the last of them are come to the church, the Souldiours by and by discharge their pieces: and … about the Temple kepe warde till the counsell breake vp.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., iv. I. 471. The king determined to hear mass with the same pomp with which his predecessors had been surrounded when they repaired to the temples of the established religion.
1867. D. Duncan, Disc., 120. By some classes of professing Christians, their places of worship are called temples … and are reverenced as sacred or holy.
1876. Haydn’s Dict. Dates, 706/2. The ‘City Temple,’ a dissenters’ chapel … was opened 19 May, 1874.
b. spec. In France and some French-speaking countries, a Protestant as distinguished from a Roman Catholic place of worship (the term ‘church’ [église] being usually confined to the latter).
1566. Clough, in Burgon, Life Gresham (1839), II. 154, note. They have laid and begun the foundation of four new tempells [in Antwerp], besides the great barne at St. Mychell’s, which ys very handsomely trymmed for a preaching place.
[1843. Murray’s France, 465/2. There are 12,000 Protestants at Nismes, who have 2 churches (temples).]
1879. Stevenson, Trav. Cevennes (1886), 150. One of the first things I encountered in Pont de Montvert was … the Protestant temple.
c. The central place of worship of the Mormons.
1840. P. P. Pratt, Inheritance of the Saints, 16, in The Millennium, etc., 52.
| Sing, O ye heavens! let earth rejoice, | |
| While saints shall flow to Zion, | |
| And rear the temple of his choice, | |
| And in its courts unite their voice, | |
| In praise to Judah’s Lion. |
1858. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 8), XV. 591/1. This great undertaking of Nauvoo was the building of the Mormon temple.
1874. J. H. Blunt, Dict. Sects, 347/2. A revelation of great length … gave directions for the building of a splendid temple, the first stone of which was laid with great pomp on April 6th, 1841. Ibid., 354/1. The tithes are supposed to be devoted to the building of the temple.
3. fig. Any place regarded as occupied by the divine presence; spec. the person or body of a Christian.
c. 975. Rushw. Gosp., John ii. 19. Un-duað ðone tempel ðis & on ðrim daʓum ic awecco ðæt. Ibid., 21. He wutudlice ʓicwæð of temple lichoma his.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Hom., II. 580. Nyte ʓe þæt eowere lima syndon þæs Halʓan Gastes tempel, seðe on eow is?
c. 1200. Ormin, 15843. Crisstene follc iss Cristess hus & Cristess hallȝhe temmple.
c. 1290. St. Kath., 21, in S. Eng. Leg., I. 92. Ȝwy ne bi-holde ȝe þe heiȝe temple … Of þe heie heuene þat geth a-boute a-bouen eov niȝt and dai.
1388. Wyclif, 1 Cor. iii. 16. Witen ȝe not, that ȝe ben the temple of God, and the spirit of God dwellith in ȝou?
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 11781. Couetous men comynly are cald aftur right, A temple to the tyrand, þat tises to syn.
c. 1450. Godstow Reg., 5. Iff we make clenc oure tempil with-ynne.
a. 1515. Dunbar, Poems, lxxxvi. 19. Tryumphand tempill of the Trinite … Princes of peiss … O mater Jhesu, salue Maria!
1605. Shaks., Macb., II. iii. 73. Most sacrilegious Murther hath broke ope The Lords anoynted Temple, and stole thence The Life o’th’Building.
1681–6. J. Scott, Chr. Life (1747), III. 55. How could his Spirit’s dwelling in us constitute us Temples of God, unless he himself were God?
a. 1700. Dryden, trans. Hymn, Veni, Creator Spiritus, 6. From sin and sorrow set us free, And make thy temples worthy thee.
1839–52. Bailey, Festus (ed. 5), 464. My favoured temple is an humble heart.
1875. Manning, Mission H. Ghost, i. 21. Yet they have been made temples of the Holy Ghost.
II. † 4. The headquarters of the Knights Templars, on or contiguous to the site of the temple at Jerusalem; hence, the order or organization of the Templars. Obs.
a. 1131. O. E. Chron., an. 1128. Ðes ilces ʓeares com fram Ierusalem Hugo of þe temple.
c. 1400. Maundev. (1839), x. 88. Towardes the south right nygh, is the temple of Salomon…. And in þat temple duellen the knyghtes of the temple, that weren wont to be clept Templeres, & þat was the fundacioun of here ordre.
c. 1400. Brut, 148. Amonge þe castelles he made an house of þe temple.
1656. Blount, Glossogr., Templaries, or Knights of the Temple.
5. spec. Name of two of the Inns of Court (see INN sb. 5 c) in London, known as the Inner and the Middle Temple (see quot. 1727–41), which stand on the site of the buildings once occupied by the Templars (of which the church alone remains).
c. 1386. Chaucer, C. T., Prol. 567. A gentil Maunciple was ther of a temple.
1462. J. Paston, in P. Lett., II. 92. To myn ryth reverent … fader, John Paston, beyng in the Inder Temple.
1556. Chron. Gr. Friars (Camden), 97. The xviij day of August [1556], the mayer dynned at the rederes denner at the Tempulle.
1591. Shaks., 1 Hen. VI., II. v. 19. We sent vnto the Temple, vnto his Chamber.
1656. Blount, Glossogr., s.v. Templaries, These Templars first founded and built the Temples or Templars Inne in Fleetstreet.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 60, ¶ 1. A Student of the Inner Temple.
1727–41. Chambers, Cycl., Temples,… two inns of court, thus called, because anciently the dwelling-house of the knights-templars … They are called the inner and middle temple, in relation to Essex-house, which was also a part of the house of the templars, and called the outer temple, because situate without Temple-Bar.
1905. C. T. Martin (title), Minutes of Parliament of the Middle Temple.
b. Name of the place in Paris which formed the headquarters of the Templars in Europe.
1617. Moryson, Itin., I. 190 (Paris). The second gate towards the East, is the gate of the Temple.
1735. [see temple diamond in 6].
1888. T. A. Archer, in Encycl. Brit., XXIII. 160/2 Louis VII. in the latter years of his reign gave them a piece of marsh land outside Paris, which in later times became known as the Temple, and was the headquarters of the order in Europe.
III. 6. attrib. and Comb. a. Simple attrib., in senses 1–3, as temple-book, -building, -captain, -chamber, -chief, -companion, -court, -door, -end, -fellow, -festival, -fronton, -gate, -gift, -guard, -hill, -hospital, -land, -master, -ministrant, -mount, -music, -musician, -pavement, -pediment, -porch, -priest, -priesthood, -prophet, -revenue, -roof, -ruin, -sacrifice, -sanctuary, -sculpture, -service, -shrine, -singer, -staff, -stair, -stead, -system, -tax, -treasury, -union, -veil, -vision, -wall, -warden, -wardenship, -worship, -yard; in sense 5, as temple-exchange, -garden, -hall, etc.; appositive, as temple-house, -palace, -pyramid, -tomb, -tower. b. Obj. and obj. gen., as temple-keeper, -robber, -sweeper, -visiting; temple-haunting adj.; instrumental, similative, etc., as temple-crowned, -like, -sacred, -treated adjs. c. Special combs.: temple children, girl children enslaved to the service of heathen temples in India; Temple church: see 5; † temple diamond (see quot.); temple-foundling, ? a foundling deposited at the Temple (sense 5); Temple parliament, = PARLIAMENT sb.1 5 b; † temple-pickling (obs. slang): see quot.; temple-ring (see quot.); temple-title, the name under which a deceased Chinese emperor is worshipped; temple-trotter (see quot.). Also TEMPLE-BAR.
1448–9. Metham, Amoryus & Cleopes, 28. Ther othe thei toke, Sweryng vpon the *tempyl-boke.
1857. J. Hamilton, Lessons fr. Gt. Biog. (1859), 219. The occupants of these *temple-chambers.
1727–41. Chambers, Cycl., s.v., The chief officer was the master of the temple…. And from him the chief minister of the *temple-church is still called the master of the temple.
1846. Grote, Greece, I. xi. 263. Pindar,… Euripides and Apollodorus, name Erichthonius … as the being who was thus adopted and made the *temple-companion of Athênê.
1884. R. Bridges, Prometheus, 758. The *temple-crowned heights.
1735. Dict. Polygraph., I. S vij. The factitious diamonds … call’d *temple Diamonds, because the best of them are made in the temple at Paris, are vastly short of the genuine ones.
1760. Foote, Minor, I. Wks. 1799, I. 239. He sits … every evening, from five till eight, under the clock, at the *Temple-exchange.
1614. Selden, Titles Hon., Pref. C j. Honor and deseruing Vertue … were *Temple-fellowes in old Rome.
1905. Athenæum, 29 July, 146/1. The last of the *Temple foundlings, Mary Ann Littlefield, survived as late as 1865, and was supposed to have been the original of Miss Flite in Dickens’s ‘Bleak House.’
1591. Shaks., 1 Hen. VI., II. iv. 125. This brawle to day, Growne to this faction in the *Temple Garden, Shall send betweene the Red-Rose and the White, A thousand Soules to Death and deadly Night.
1595. Spenser, Epithal., xii. Open the *temple gates unto my love, Open them wide that she may enter in.
1605. Shaks., Macb., I. vi. 4. This Guest of Summer, The Temple haunting Martlet.
13[?]. All Saints, 41. in Herrig’s Archiv, LXXIX. 435. Thus was ordeynd his *temple-hous [the Pantheon] Off all deuyllus, to have þer cours.
a. 1670. Spalding, Troub. Chas. I. (1829), 63. He gave then the superiorities of the haill *temple-lands with in their burrow.
1663. Gerbier, Counsel, e iij. Representing Solomons *Temple-like Foundations of a State.
1860. Pusey, Min. Proph., 398. Habakkuk must have been entitled to take part in the *temple-music, and so must have been a Levite.
1891. Cheyne, Psalter, ii. 69. It [Ps. 37] is evidently the work of a *temple-musician.
1851. Buried City East Nineveh, vii. 105. The architecture of the Assyrians, as illustrated in its only relics, the great *Temple-palaces.
1641. W. Mountagu, in Buccleuch MSS. (Hist. MSS. Comm.), I. 285. Friday is the day of *Temple parliament.
1905. Daily News, 15 July, 4. The transactions of the Middle Temple ‘Parliaments,’ beginning from the year 1501.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, *Temple-pickling, the Pumping, of Bailives, Bumms, Setters, Pick-pockets, &c.
a. 1711. Ken, Hymnotheo, Poet. Wks. 1721, III. 77. The *Temple-Porch two arched Cloysters flank’d.
1711. Hickes, Two Treat. Chr. Priesth. (1847), II. 251. A dissolution of the *temple-priesthood.
1905. D. Smith, Days His Flesh, vii. 59. Every adult Israelite … had to pay an annual tax of half a shekel to the *Temple-revenue.
1877. W. Jones, Finger-ring, 298. Another betrothal ring … called *‘temple’ or ‘tower,’ from the figure of the sacred temple placed on their summit.
1637. Nabbes, Microcosm., in Dodsley, O. Pl., IX. 163. The *temple-robber … to the altar flies.
a. 1661. Holyday, Juvenal (1673), 249. Temple-robbers … stealing away plates of gold from the statues of the gods.
1857. J. Hamilton, Lessons fr. Gt. Biog. (1859), 86. He heard from the temple-roof a whisper in his ear.
1732. P. Delany, Rev. Exam., II. 10. The creatures might still be killed, even by them [the Jews], under a constant sense of religion and gratitude to God, tho’ not with all the formalities of a *temple sacrifice.
1860. Pusey, Min. Proph., 24. The condition … in which there should be none of the special *Temple-service.
a. 1711. Ken, Hymnotheo, Poet. Wks. 1721, III. 73. Hymnotheo … Kiss’d the Saints’ feet, who trod the *Temple-Stairs.
1870. Morris, Earthly Par., III. 299. Now fain I would unto the *temple-stead.
1904. R. J. Farrer, Garden Asia, 118. The great *temple-tomb is in high festival for the Birthday of the Saviour [Buddha].
1863. W. Smith’s Dict. Bible, 158/2. s.v. Babel, An ancient Babylonian *temple-tower.
1873. Browning, Red Cott. Nt.-cap, 680. A quaint device, Pillared and *temple-treated Belvedere.
1861. Sat. Rev., 30 Nov., 560. An extremely low lawyer’s clerk, of the genus which in old professional slang was called *‘Temple-trotter.’
c. 1340. Cursor M., 16762 + 85 (Cott.). Þe *temple vayl clef in twoo.
1609. Bible (Douay), Zeph. i. 4. The names of the *templewardens with the priests.
1904. W. M. Ramsay, Lett. to Seven Ch., xvii. 232. The fourth *Temple-Wardenship seems to be of Artemis.
1680. Allen, Peace & Unity, 102. The corrupt estate of the Jewish church … both in *Temple-worship and in Synagogue-worship.
1714. R. Fiddes, Pract. Disc., II. 138. The ceremonial ordinances which chiefly gave directions about the temple-worship.
Hence Templeful, as many or as much as fills a temple; Templeward adv., towards the temple.
1868. Whittier, Meeting, 21. Nor ritual-bound nor temple-ward Walks the free spirit of the Lord!
1909. Expositor, Oct., 316. A whole templeful of men whose consciences kept them from casting a stone.
1918. Upton Sinclair, Profits of Religion, 26. His friends make a sacrifice of seven bullocks and seven rams—a feast for a whole templeful of priests.
