[a. F. cénacle, ad. L. cēnāculum dining-room, f. cēna the mid-day or afternoon meal, ‘dinner,’ ‘supper’; in the Vulgate used of the ‘upper room’ in which the Last Supper was eaten, whence its chief use in the modern langs. Also used in Latin form.]
A supping room; an upper chamber; esp. the upper room in which the Last Supper was held, and in which the apostles met after the Ascension.
a. 1400. Cov. Myst. (1741), 17. In Hierusalem were gaderyd xij opynly To the Cenacle.
1483. Caxton, Gold. Leg., 328/3. A fayr Cenacle honestly arayed with al maner of deyntes. Ibid. (1491), Vitas Patr. (W. de W.), III. xix. (1495), 322 b/2. Danyell the prophete … was thre tymes in the cenacle and prayed god deuoutly.
1858. Faber, Xavier, 220. A new tongue … added to the many ancient ones which … had first found expression in the Cenacle of Judea.
