ziggurathttp://www.oed.com/dictionary/ziggurat_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_useziggurat, n.
First published 1921; not fully revised

zigguratnoun

  1. 1.
    1873–
    A staged tower of pyramid form in which each successive storey is smaller than that below it, so as to leave a terrace all round; an Assyrian or Babylonian temple-tower.
    1. 1873
      At the north end the cone represents the ancient ziggurat or tower.
      Daily Telegraph 7 July 5/6
    2. 1877
      The ziggurrat or sacred tower of the palace of Khorsabad.
      translation of Lenormat's Chaldæan Magic xv. 227
    3. 1883
      In all directions rise the lofty ziggurats or towers of the temples.
      P. H. Hunter, Story of Daniel ix. 156
    4. 1898
      The ziggurat, or great tower, of which the Tower of Babel was a famous example.
      English Historical Review January 5
    5. 1908
      The zikkurats at Erech and Borsippa.
      Expositor May 402
  2. 2.
    1959–
    transferred and figurative.
    1. 1959
      The burnished ziggurats of copper saucepans.
      Times 21 October 11/3
    2. 1970
      The bags are abandoned, of course, and join the rest of the overkill of trash imagery, now heaped into ziggurats, festooning vegetation, scrawled in livid drifts on the downs.
      Daily Telegraph 30 October (Colour Supplement) 26/3
    3. 1979
      His Dallas Chapel in the form of a spiral ziggurat..borrows quite directly from the ninth-century minaret at Samarra.
      Journal of Royal Society of Arts November 761/1
    4. 1980
      The photograph will give an idea of the real engineering performed to make this temple a ‘ziggurat’ of comb—upward from the base above the regular [honey]combs.
      Bee Culture July 376

ziggurat, n. was first published in 1921; not fully revised.

ziggurat, n. was last modified in December 2023.