Edifice
/ˈɛd.ɪ.fɪs/noun
A large and imposing building.
Did you know?Edifice comes from Latin aedificium, built from aedes (“house, temple”) + facere (“to make”), so even sacred spaces and ordinary buildings share the same word-magic of construction.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*dheh₁-
“to put, place, set”
Latin
Latin
facere
“to do, make”
Latin
Latin
aedes
“house, temple”
Latin
Latin
aedificium
“a building; a structure”
Old French
OF
edifice
“building”
Middle English
English
edifice
“building, structure”
Modern English
English
edifice
“a large and imposing building”