Benitier

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A decorative basin used in religious contexts for holding holy water
2. A vessel placed at the entryway of a church, intended for the sanctification of worshippers with water
3. A bowl or basin typically found in places of worship, used to hold holy water for ritual purposes

Etymology: A benitier is a basin of holy water set near the entrance of a church, where worshippers dip their fingers and make the sign of the cross. The word came into English from French "bénitier", and its roots lie in Latin "benedictus", meaning "blessed", the past participle of "benedicere", "to bless". The Latin "benedictarium" gave the French word its ancestry, so the whole chain runs from the idea of blessing to a physical vessel of water. The shift from blessing to basin is the heart of the story: the word names the container, and the thing held inside it is what the Latin root was really about. A vessel becomes labelled by its contents' sacred quality, so the stone bowl near the door ends up named for the blessing it carries.