Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🕯️ Altar backdrop ✝️ Altar table
retable

retable

9.9
Table at the altar where the priest places the bread and wine during a service
  • noun
  • /ˈrɛtəbl/
  • Archaic
: mesa del altar
  • During the ceremony, the priest placed the wine and bread on the retable for the Eucharist.

Examples

  • The Huart family of Messac contributed to the retable of the parish church in 1678 in return for a display of their arms.

    Academic text (2018)

  • Visitors admired the historic retable that had been preserved for centuries in the old cathedral.

  • In the seventeenth century, the donation of retables took the place of stained glass.

    Academic text (2018)

  • Here, Carpaccio has imagined an Early Christian altar, adorned not by a carved and painted retable but by a freestanding bronze.

    Academic text (2005)

  • The elaborate retable behind the altar was decorated with intricate carvings and gold leaf.

Synonyms

altar
vsretable
174 2.9

A raised table in a religious building where people place offerings and pray

is used specifically for Eucharist celebrations rather than any worship structure
communion table
vsretable
1 5.5

A table in a church where bread and wine are placed for Communion

is an older less used name for that sacramental table
Lord's table
vsretable
1 8.4

A table in a church where the priest places the bread and wine for Holy Communion

is the older archaic word for the same church table

Surface Forms

retable singular
retables plural

Morphology

retable = table (opaque) = re + table

Even where 'retable' means an altar table, the form 're-' + 'table' does not transparently communicate this ecclesiastical sense to a general learner.

Etymology

The word retable was also used for the altar 'table' itself and comes from French parts re- 'back' and table 'table'. Because it named the table used in the church service, a retable could mean the altar table where the priest placed the sacred bread and wine.