Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A feast formerly celebrated in England, during which bread from the season's first wheat was consecrated at Mass in thanksgiving for the harvest.
- n. A feast formerly celebrated in commemoration of Saint Peter's deliverance from prison.
- n. August 1, the day on which these feasts were celebrated.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Originally, in England, the festival of the wheat-harvest, observed on the 1st of August, corresponding to the 12th in the modern calendar. It is supposed to have taken its name from the practice of offering first-fruits at the service of the mass on that day, in the form of loaves of bread. The festival was a continuation of a similar one from pagan times. Some have supposed, erroneously, that the name has some connection with the word lamb.
- n. In Great Britain, the 1st of August as a date, which in Scotland is a quarter-day and in England a half-quarter-day. The prevalence of this use, both in ancient and modern times, has to a great extent obscured the original significance of the word. Also called
Lammas-day . - n. The church festival of St. Peter's Chains, or St. Peter in the Fetters, observed on August 1st in memory of St. Peter's imprisonment and miraculous deliverance (Acts xii. 4–10).
Wiktionary
- n. England former festival held on 1st August celebrating the harvest.
- n. Scotland 1st August, a quarter day
- n. paganism A modern pagan festival celebrated in early August celebrating the start of the grain harvest.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The first day of August; -- called also
Lammas day , andLammastide .
WordNet 3.0
- n. commemorates Saint Peter's miraculous deliverance from prison; a quarter day in Scotland; a harvest festival in England
Etymologies
- from Old English hlafmæsse (loaf mass, harvest festival) (Wiktionary)
- Middle English Lammasse, from Old English hlāfmæsse : hlāf, loaf + mæsse, Mass; see Mass. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Lammas is coming August 1, now, Thats the Beer Festival and I must get to my brewing!”
“This fair, says Keating, was then kept upon the day known in the Irish language as La Lughnasa, or the day ordained by Lughaidh, and is called in English Lammas-day.”
“And so the book now known as Lammas Night was born.”
“Lammas (loaf mass) is also found as a personal name, but there is a place called Lammas in Norfolk.”
“It's called the Lammas Cup now though we used to call it the Lammas Open," Graham Hutchison told the Diary over a whisky in the town's Whey Pat Inn. "It started because in Scotland pubs used only to open from 11am until 2pm before reopening in the evening.”
The Guardian: The Open 2010 Diary: Tiger Woods' putter switch of 'no concern' to supplier
“Nina Allan's "The Lammas Worm" is a story that is more Fantastical than it is Horrific.”
REVIEW: The Best Horror Of The Year, Volume 2 edited by Ellen Datlow
“Garland started out as a Ronnie Scott protege, became an inventive early explorer of folk-jazz crossovers with the band Lammas and earned international acclaim as a Chick Corea sideman.”
“In these Lammas days, the flowers of the sun are bird's-foot trefoil, meliots, medicks, St John's wort, yellow-wort, ragwort and hawkbits.”
“But on Lammas day, which is a kind of market day, the pubs in St Andrews would open all day from 11am.”
The Guardian: The Open 2010 Diary: Tiger Woods' putter switch of 'no concern' to supplier
“A glance at the official St Andrews website confirms that on Tuesday 10August between 6.30 and 7.20 the Lammas Cup will be teeing off.”
The Guardian: The Open 2010 Diary: Tiger Woods' putter switch of 'no concern' to supplier
Tweets
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