"building for worship, edifice dedicated to the service of a deity or deities," Old English tempel, from Latin templum "piece of ground consecrated for the taking of auspices, building for worship of a god," of uncertain signification. Commonly referred to PIE root *tem- "to cut" (see tome), on notion of "place reserved or cut out" [Watkins], or to root *temp- "to stretch" [Klein's sources], on notion of "cleared space in front of an altar" (see tenet). Compare Greek temenos "sacred area around a temple," literally "place cut off," from stem of temnein "to cut." Figurative sense of "any place regarded as occupied by divine presence" was in Old English. Applied to Jewish synagogues from 1590s.

"side of the forehead," mid-14c., from Old French temple "side of the forehead" (11c.), from Vulgar Latin *tempula (plural taken as fem. singular), from Latin tempora, plural of tempus (genitive temporis) "side of the forehead," perhaps originally "the thin stretch of skin at the side of the forehead," from PIE *temp- "to stretch," an extension of the root *ten- "to stretch" (see tenet), from the notion of "stretched," thus "thin," which is the notion in cognate Old English ðunwange, literally "thin cheek." Or possibly associated with tempus span "timely space" (for a mortal blow with a sword).