vestal

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a Vestal Virgin, one of the priestesses who tended the sacred fire of Vesta in ancient Rome

   A vestal was bound to preserve the temple's sacred flame.

2. 2
   adj

   relating to Vesta, her priestesses, or their sacred fire

   The historian described the vestal rites performed beside the eternal flame.

3. 3
   adj

   literary: chaste or pure

   The poem praised her vestal devotion to the cause.

A learned borrowing from Latin Vestalis, 'of Vesta,' the Roman goddess of the hearth. Her priestesses guarded a perpetual sacred fire and were required to remain chaste, giving English both the historical noun and the literary adjective 'pure or chaste.'

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