Bosworth Toller's

Anglo-Saxon

Dictionary online

undern

  • noun [ masculine ]
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Grammar
undern, es; m.
The third hour of the day, nine in the morning; in later English (v. infra) it is used of the sixth hour, a use it seems to have in undern-rest, q.v.
Show examples
  • Undern

    tertia,

    middæg

    sexta,

    • Wrt. Voc. i. 53, 11.
  • Undern is dæges þridde tíd,

    • Btwk. 214, 33.
  • Ðæs hírédes ealdor gehýrde wyrhtan on ǽrnemerigen, eft on undern ... Se ǽrmerigen wæs fram Adam óð Noe, se undern fram Noe óð Abraham,

    • Homl. Th. ii. 74, 7-19.
  • undernes,

    • Lchdm. ii. 194, 6.
  • Byð seó sceadu tó underne and tó nóne seofon and twéntigoþan healfes fótes

    the shadow at nine and at three is twenty-six and a half feet long,

    • iii. 218, 3,
    • and often.
  • Æt underne ... ǽr underne,

    • Blickl. Homl. 93, 22, 36.
  • Ǽr undern ... ofer undern

    mane ... vespere,

    • Lev. 6, 20.
  • On ða þriddan tíd dæges, ðæt is on undern,

    • Shrn. 79. 35.
  • Wé étaþ on ðam Sunnandagum on undern and on ǽfen,

    • Homl. Skt. i. 12, 3.
  • Sele drincan on þreó tída, on undern, on middæg, on nón,

    • Lchdm. ii. 140, 1.
  • Fram hancréde óð undern,

    • Homl. Th. i. 74, 21: Chr. 538
    • ;
    • Erl. 16, 2.
  • Ofor undern,

    • Blickl. Homl. 93, 15.
  • Healfe tíd ofer undern,

    • 540
    • ;
    • Erl. 16, 4.
  • Óð heáne undern

    usque ad tertiam plenam,

    • R. Ben, 74, 11.
Etymology
[Abuten undern deies ... abute swucke time alse me singeð messe (from prime oðet midmareȝen, hwenne preostes singeð heore messen, MS. C.),
  • A. R. 24, 11.
So ha dede at undren and and at midday also
    (
  • Mt. 20, 3
  • ),
  • Misc. 33, 22.
At þon heye undarne (Acts 2, 15),
  • 56, 657.
It was the thridde our (that men clepen undrun),
  • Wick. Mk. 15, 25.
The time of undern of the same day,
  • Ch. Cl. T. 260.
But the word sometimes denotes a later hour Bi þis was undren (under, undrin) on þe dai (the sixth hour,
  • Lk. 23. 44
  • ),
  • C. M. 16741.
Undorne, 19830. The our was as the sixte or undurn,
  • Wick. Jn. 4, 6.
An orendron, ornedrone meredies,
  • Cath. Angl. 261, where see note
  • .
Similar entries
See also the later English forms given under undern-mǽl, -mete, -tíd.
O. Sax. undorn the third hour
:
O. Frs. ond, unden (and see Richthofen Wtbch.)
:
O. H. Ger. untarn midday
:
Icel. undorn nine o'clock A.M. or three o'clock P.M.; a meal.
Cf.
Goth. undaurni-mats άριoτoν.
As in the case of mǽl = meal, the word seems to have come to denote the eating that takes place at the time, which at first the word denoted. v. Halliwell's Dict. aandorn,]
Similar entries
v. compounds with undern-.
Full form

Word-wheel

  • undern, n.