Chapel

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈt͡ʃæp.əl/

Definitions

1. A small building or room used for worship or religious services ; a designated space for prayer or religious activities within a larger institution such as a hospital or school
2. A modest structure dedicated to religious ceremonies or devotion ; a section inside a bigger establishment set aside for spiritual practices
3. A compact worship location often serving a community ; a private or institutional room arranged for religious events

Etymology: The most striking part of this story is a cloak. According to a legend recorded by the historian Diarmaid MacCulloch, Saint Martin of Tours tore his military cloak in half to clothe a poor man, who later turned out to be Christ himself. The surviving half, in Latin "cappella", or "little cloak", became one of the most prized relics of the Frankish rulers who took over Gaul from the Romans. The small shrines and temporary structures built to house it were named after the relic, and so "capellae" came to mean any sacred space holding such treasures. From there the word passed into Old French as "chapele" and then into Middle English as "chapele", the ancestor of the modern form. It is a doublet of "capelle", a related English word that came in by a different route and kept a more specialised sense. English already had its own word for a place of worship, "bēdhūs" (literally "prayer house"), which the newcomer largely displaced. The word also gave English a more everyday use. Printing was first carried on in England in a chapel near Westminster Abbey, so printers' workplaces came to be called chapels, and the staff meetings of a printing office are still called chapel meetings.

Synonyms: shrine, sanctuary, place of worship, oratory, temple