Word of the Day

: June 26, 2011

mosque

noun MAHSK

What It Means

: a building used for public worship by Muslims

mosque in Context

On the last day of Ramadan, Abdul and his family attended prayer services at a local mosque.

"Last year, a Muslim congregation in Murfreesboro, Tenn., a pleasant college town of about 110,000 people southeast of Nashville, decided that the time had come to build a proper mosque." -- From an op-ed by Doyle McManus in the Los Angeles Times, May 19, 2011

Did You Know?

Mosques were known to the English-speaking world long before we called them "mosques." In the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries, we used many different variations of the word -- "moseak," "muskey," "moschy," "mos’keh," among others -- until we finally hit on "mosquee," emulating Middle French. The Middle French word had come by way of Italian and Old Spanish from the Arabic word for "temple," which is "masjid." In the early 1700s, we settled on the present spelling, and "mosque" thus joined other English words related to Muslim worship: "mihrab," for the special niche in a mosque that points towards Mecca; "minaret," for the tall slender tower of a mosque; and "muezzin," for the crier who, standing in the minaret, calls the hour of daily prayers.