Dictionary
Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.
Operative Masonry en · PROPN
Pronunciation
- /ˈɒpərətɪv ˈmeɪsənri/ (UK)
- /ˈɑpərətɪv ˈmeɪsənri/ (US)
Meanings
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(archaic) Practical masonry, i.e. construction with stone and other materials, understood as a coherent and ancient system contrasted with Speculative Masonry or Freemasonry.
Coordinate term: Speculative Masonry
But you and I, my brother, are taught that Operative Masonry is but the outward form, the type, the model of speculative Masonry; and that King Solomon’s Temple, with all its particulars, was the antitype of the grand world-wide system which we call Freemasonry.
1878 February 16, Rob Morris, “The Holy Land and the Temple”, in The Freemason’s Chronicle, volume 7, number 164, page 116: