cathedral

• IPA^(key): /kəˈθiː.dɹəl/

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From Middle English cathedral, chathedral, cathiderall, from Old French [Term?], from Latin cathedrālis, from cathedra +‎ -ālis.

cathedral (not comparable)

1. Relating to the throne or the see of a bishop.

• cathedratic

A large cathedral in Reims, France, with many architectural features traditional to such a structure.

Ellipsis of cathedral church, from Middle English chirche cathederall, cathedrall chirch, calque of Late Latin ecclēsia cathedrālis (“church having a bishop's seat”), from Latin ecclēsia +‎ cathedrālis. Displaced Old English hēafodċiriċe (literally “main church, head church”).

cathedral (plural cathedrals)

1. The principal church of an archbishop's/bishop's archdiocese/diocese which contains an episcopal throne.
2. (loosely or informally) A large or important church building.
3. (figurative) A large, impressive, lofty, and/or important building or place of some other kind.

   a cathedral of commerce

4. A large buttressed structure built by certain termites.

Coined by political blogger Curtis Yarvin, writing as Mencius Moldbug.

the Cathedral or the cathedral

1. (US politics, slang, Dark Enlightenment) A mainstream system or establishment in society, held to be liberal or leftist and to be working against the interests of the people or nation.
   • 2019 May 14, Michael Malice, “The Strike” (chapter 3), in The New Right: A Journey to the Fringe of American Politics‎, →ISBN, from third sentence of third paragraph:

     The reaction from the Cathedral—the press, the political establishment, and everyone else who shaped acceptable opinion—was quick and unanimous

   • 2022 January 14, Rod Dreher, “Neckbeard Militias Are Not My Enemy”, in The American Conservative‎, archived from the original on 2022-04-15:

     This is why grown-up men and women in the Cathedral (to use the neoreactionary term for the Establishment) actually believe that the MAGA yahoos of January 6 nearly overthrew the US government.

   • 2022 December 10, Ross Douthat, “A Political Theory of King Elon Musk”, in The New York Times‎, archived from the original on March 23, 2024:

     [Curtis Yarvin] is forthright in his belief that the present order — to his mind, an oligarchy governed by a complex of elite institutions (like this newspaper) that he calls “the Cathedral” — should be overthrown

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:cathedral.

• cathederall, cathedrall, cathedralle, cathiderall, chathedral, chathydralle

Borrowed from Old French cathedral, from Latin cathedrālis.

• IPA^(key): /kaˌtɛːˈdraːl/, /kaˈtɛːdral/

cathedral

1. cathedral (relating to the see of a bishop)

• English: cathedral

• “cathēdrāl, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.