tempio

Tempio is the Italian word for temple, a building used for worship and ritual. In Italian, tempio designates both ancient sanctuaries and modern places of worship dedicated to a deity or religious cult. The term is also used in cultural and historical contexts to describe sacred precincts or temples as architectural forms.

Origin and evolution: The word derives from the Latin templum, via Old Italian; it entered the Italian language with the sense of a sacred space set aside for divine observation. Over time, its use broadened to cover a range of religious buildings and metaphorical uses in literature and art.

Architecture and usage: In classical contexts temples were typically built to a prescribed architectural order, with columns, a pronaos and a naos, and an altar. In Italy and elsewhere, the word tempio also appears in descriptions of ancient Roman or Greek sanctuaries in museums and scholarly writing. In modern Italian, tempio can denote a temple for non-Christian religions, but chiesa is usually used for Christian churches.

Toponymy and people: Tempio appears in Italian place names, such as Tempio Pausania in Sardinia. It is also used as a surname in Italy and among the Italian diaspora.

See also: Temple.