Mynster

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A large church, often a cathedral or one that once belonged to a monastery, used as a central place of worship
2. An archaic name for a great church, typically a cathedral or a former monastic church serving a wider community
3. A grand house of worship, historically a cathedral or abbey church that served as the focus of a religious district

Etymology: "Mynster" is an Old English word for a monastery or a large church, usually one attached to a religious community. It comes from the Latin "monasterium", which in turn came from "monasterium" meaning a dwelling for monks, derived from Greek "monastērion", a place of solitude, from "monos" meaning alone. Old English borrowed it early, when Christian missionaries brought Latin church vocabulary to England, so the word is older than most of the English church's own terms. The later form "minster" is the same word worn down over centuries. The initial "my-" softened and the middle vowel dropped, and by the late Middle Ages "minster" was the usual spelling for a large church that had once belonged to a monastery, or that still served a wider area. Many English towns keep the word in their names for this reason, such as Westminster, Beverley Minster, and Southwell Minster, where a grand church stands at the centre of town life.