chapel

英文词源

chapel

chapel: [13] Chapel has a very specific source: it was originally applied to the shrine built to preserve the cloak (late Latin cappa) of St Martin of Tours as a holy relic. The diminutive form of cappa was cappella, and this came to be applied to the building itself, gradually being broadened out subsequently to any moderately sized place of worship. The word reached English via Old French chapele. The church functionary who guarded St Martin’s cloak was known by the derivative term cappellānus, source of English chaplain [12].
=> chaplain

chapel (n.)

early 13c., from Old French chapele (12c., Modern French chapelle), from Medieval Latin cappella "chapel, sanctuary for relics," literally "little cape," diminutive of Late Latin cappa "cape" (see cap (n.)); by tradition, originally in reference to the sanctuary in France in which the miraculous cape of St. Martin of Tours, patron saint of France, was preserved; meaning extended in most European languages to "any sanctuary." (While serving Rome as a soldier deployed in Gaul, Martin cut his military coat in half to share it with a ragged beggar. That night, Martin dreamed Christ wearing the half-cloak; the half Martin kept was the relic.)