Archaic KJV Word
Temple
Modern equivalent: place of worship
What Was Lost
The heaven-earth overlap. The temple was not a building where people went to find God -- it was the place where God's dimension and the human dimension physically intersected. The glory-cloud filling the temple was not a metaphor but an encounter. When Paul said 'your body is the temple,' he meant your body is the new heaven-earth junction.
Closest Survivor in Modern English
temple (still used but understood as 'large religious building' rather than 'heaven-earth junction point')
Peak Usage (1611)
KJV 1 Kings 8:10-11 -- 'The glory of the Lord had filled the house'; 1 Corinthians 6:19 -- 'Your body is the temple'
Died still used but genericized (~1900)
Hebrew heykal ('palace of the divine King') and mikdash ('sacred/set-apart place') reduced to 'large religious building.' The concept of a place where heaven and earth literally overlapped was lost to architecture.
What Replaced It
“church building”
Functional meeting space; the temple was where heaven and earth intersected -- where God's dimension met ours
“place of worship”
Activity-focused; the temple was about God's presence, not human activity
“religious site”
Tourist designation; the temple was the most dangerous, holy, and alive place on earth