Butler — Household Words: Their Etymology, 379 



"bj all who fail to keep this fact in mind. The word church, an 

 adjective coming from Greek, means "The Lord's, belonging to 

 the Lord." Nave, Latin for ship, took its religions sense from 

 viewing the church as the ship of souls, and with allusion to the 

 ark of JN'oah. Altar has the same root with exalted, that is, some- 

 thing raised up, a high-place for sacrifices to be offered on^ 

 Singers standing behind this church-center gave the name choir 

 to the place w^here they quired, that is, performed their function. 

 Chancel now used as identical with choir means lattice-work, 

 and at first was applied to the screen between choir and transept. 

 Transept, literally a hedge across, was so named because, lying at 

 right angles to nave and choir, it is a hedge between them. 

 'Aisles mean wings, pinions each side of the nave and combining 

 wtith it to form a winged ship, as if it would soar to heaven.. 

 In the verses of Moore : 



". . . . a bark of light, 

 Sailing through heaven as if it bore 

 Spirits of earth, the good, the bright. 

 To some remote celestial shore." 



Organ is a tool for work of any sort, and specifically the- 

 grandest of tools for musical work. Rosary is a bed or bouquet 

 of roses, but if we believe the legend, when a virgin burning at 

 the stake prayed for her murderers, the brands were transformed 

 into roses which, created by prayer, becam:e emblems of prayer,, 

 and a string of them formed a rosary, a series of prayers. Sac- 

 rament wlas a Roman soldier's oath, hence it designates what- 

 ever is supreme in sacredness. Image is a word which could 

 need no definition did not contraction hinder us from seeing its 

 connection with imitate. But for this it would appear as imi- 

 tage, an imitation. The original of chapel is cape, which word 

 "wfas used to designate the shelter or shrine for that particular 

 cape, half of which St. Martin had given to Christ whom he had 

 m.et as a naked beggar. The name was first used in France 

 wfhere St. Martin was one of the chief saints, and naturally 

 spread to sacred shelters elsewhere. Cathedral means seat — a 

 church ^vith a seat for a bishop. Of old all other persons stood 

 or kneeled as thev do still in the Greek church. Seat is short- 

 ened into see. Minster is the church of a monastery, which is an 

 abode of monks, men who dwell alone, namely, separate from 



