Sunday Rest: edicule. Word Not To Use Today.

Strangely enough, edicule does not describe the natural contempt felt by the unschooled for the highly educated.

Instead it's a shrine. It may be situated inside a religious building, but it's not built as part of it.

This is the Ascension edicule on the Mount of Olives:


photo by en:user:adriatikus

And this is the Jesus Tomb edicule inside the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre:


photo by Joe Goldberg from Seattle.

Now, this is all very well. These things exist, and so they need a name.

But a word describing the contempt of the uneducated for the highly schooled would be ever so much more useful.

Word Not To Use Today: edicule. This word comes from the Latin aecula. Aedēs means temple or shrine, and is related to the Greek aithēr, bright upper sky. The -cule bit is a Latin way of indicating something small.