joss house
- noun
- Archaic
:
templo
- Many visitors come to admire the joss houses in Chinatown.
Examples
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The old Chinatown still has a beautifully decorated joss house open to visitors.
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The guide explained the significance of each statue inside the joss house.
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Worshippers gathered incense and offerings before entering the joss house.
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The joss house was beautifully decorated for the festival.
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The local community gathered at the joss house to celebrate the Lunar New Year with traditional prayers and offerings.
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Inside the joss house, visitors can find beautiful statues of various deities and intricate incense burners.
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Many people visit the joss house to light incense and pay their respects to their ancestors.
Synonyms
126
4.1
A holy place where people go to pray and honor a saint or sacred object
11
2.9
A building where people gather for prayer or religious services
9
3.1
A building where people gather to pray, like a church
1
3.8
A building where people meet to pray together
How Sacred
Surface Forms
Morphology
joss + house
The meaning is compositionally derived: 'joss' (an idol or god) + 'house' (a building) straightforwardly yields 'a building for worship of idols/temple', so a learner who knows both constituent meanings can infer the MWE. Although 'joss' is culturally specific and relatively rare, its semantic contribution is literal, making the compound transparent to someone who already knows the word.
Etymology
Joss house may come from an old word joss used by sailors to mean 'god'. So joss plus house makes a picture of a 'house of gods' with statues and offerings, which is why it means a Chinese temple or shrine.