Autem

adj, noun

adj, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A church. UK, obsolete

    "THESE Autem Mortes be maried wemen, as there be but a fewe: For Autem in their language is a Church, so shee is a wyfe maried at the church, and they be as chaste as a cowe: I haue yt gooeth to bull euery moone, with what bull she careth not."

Adjective
  1. 1
    Married. UK, not-comparable, obsolete

Example

More examples

"THESE Autem Mortes be maried wemen, as there be but a fewe: For Autem in their language is a Church, so shee is a wyfe maried at the church, and they be as chaste as a cowe: I haue yt gooeth to bull euery moone, with what bull she careth not."

Etymology

UK 16th century. Possibly borrowed from Yiddish אַ (a, “indefinite article”) + טומאה (tume, “church (derogatory); forbidden; impure”).

Related phrases

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.