Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A daily evening service in the Anglican Church. Also called Evening Prayer.
- n. Roman Catholic Church A service that includes the office of Vespers. No longer in ecclesiastical use.
- n. A song sung in the evening.
- n. Archaic Evening.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In the Anglican Ch., a form of worship appointed to be said or sung at evening. Known as vespers in the Roman Catholic Church.
- n. A song or hymn sung at evening.
- n. The time of even-song; evening.
- n. Also evening-song.
Wiktionary
- n. A religious service, most commonly seen in the Anglican or Episcopal Church, that takes place in the early hours of the evening.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A song for the evening; the evening service or form of worship (in the Church of England including vespers and compline); also, the time of evensong.
WordNet 3.0
- n. (Anglican Church) a daily evening service with prayers prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer
- n. the sixth of the seven canonical hours of the divine office; early evening; now often made a public service on Sundays
Examples
“At 7 p.m. we'll have a choral evensong, which is designed for congregation participation," Chapman said.”
“There is a melancholy in the modern world which looks with nostalgia to the days when magic ruled the world, and sunrise was a time of aubade, dusk a time for the canticles of evensong, when the elfin ships can be glimpsed by those with second sight against the fiery clouds, setting sail away from the mortal shores for worlds beyond the sunset, beyond the seas we know.”
“I hadn't realised that Tony, who was born into a church family, always attended evensong at St Mary Abbots in Kensington, London, where his father had worked.”
The Guardian: Aaaargh! It's the end of Nigel in the Archers. Now which one was he again?
“Or that nobody who is good at sports ought to be "morally upright" iow, not sleep with team-mates wives, girlfriends or partners, or swear gratuitously on every occasion or enjoy a decent choral evensong?”
The Guardian: Why are English sporting heroes so dull? | Kevin McKenna
“When the shadows dip behind a churchyard somewhere in England's shires, it would be no surprise to glimpse David Gower on his way to evensong with Sebastian Coe and Tim Henman.”
The Guardian: Why are English sporting heroes so dull? | Kevin McKenna
“The best way to appreciate is to visit during evensong.01223 331212One of the earliest examples of a show of private wealth, this was built in 1440 by Ralph Cromwell, treasurer to Henry VI.”
The Guardian: Gothic architecture in Britain: examples from the era
“With the right wind, he might one day hear the evensong of the bailiffs, wrestling with protesters, ripping down their tents.”
“I have BBC Radio 3 broadcasting choral evensong on while a student comes to discuss her long essay.”
“Hours of 13.5 tog murders pondered amid snoozing spires and the distant peal of pre-recorded evensong.”
The Guardian: Top Gear, New Tricks, Lewis … the television shows that won't die
“Stranger still was his admission that he had been to evensong in Hereford Cathedral the previous evening and had met fellow atheist Christopher Grayling as he left.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘evensong’.
-
architecture and design words
fancy words to use when describing architecture and design
beautility, bathos, ephemeral, wabi sabi, ethos, didactic, ascetic, ephemeral, non sequitur, veracity, acumen, maven and 22 more...
-
thing
apron, lard, clove, camphor, alfalfa, amber, caraway, juniper, kohl, lute, shale, glyph and 142 more...
-
xyzprincess's Words
crabwise, virtu, peripatetic, idyll, trencherman, equivocate, flummery, hoi polloi, pixilated, albatross, wangle, bodacious and 170 more...
-
#1
Words I Like
abide, sashay, microbial, scented, nature, amorphous, unknown, imagine, photogenic, soft, silken, history and 188 more...
-
words found to be generally pleasing
alabaster, mahogany, camphor, coalesce, spire, portmanteau, gadabout, palaver, dolor, dour, dun, luminesce and 610 more...
-
Time for a new list!
abrupt, erupt, rupture, sync, appropinquity, heterochromia, homochromatic, monochromatic, willy nilly, nitty gritty, kowtow, wonton and 455 more...
-
Compounds That Look Freakish
You know who you are, freakish compounds. Though very useful, some of these words just don't seem right together--or, their meanings are so far from what the two (or more) component words suggest t...
nightjar, bullfinch, grassquit, bananaquit, ovenbird, waxwing, stonechat, wheatear, bushtit, wrentit, starthroat, godwit and 158 more...
-
Archaic
Because they just don't make 'em like they used to.
comeling, circuition, assentment, advisement, accompts, apertness, larum, soothfastness, deperdition, marish, covin, tinct and 166 more...
-
kenzie's Words
epiphany, rhapsody, melody, cacophany, zenith, meticulous, sly, portent, synchronicity, juggernaut, evensong, script and 99 more...
-
1906 Railway Cipher Code
Terms from the Standard Cipher Code of the American Railway Association, 1906. The terms were shorthand for common phrases used in telegraphic communications between station agents and Railway Asso...
abetting, abdominal, abiology, ablative, abnormal, abominate, aboveboard, abrasive, absinth, abstinent, accursed, acetate and 212 more...
-
sarahatlee's Words
pants, nekkid, schadenfreude, unseasonably, illicit, glaswegian, cripes, futz, drawers, scupper, coulrophobic, redacted and 254 more...
-
Church of England
words related to the Anglican faith.
transept, nave, sanctuary, sacristy, cassock, chasuble, ciborium, chalice, vestments, acolyte, alb, liturgy and 22 more...
-
old-timey goodness
fusty, hoary, old-fashioned, archaic
antediluvian, merkin, soused, welkin, relict, forthwith, carouse, mollycoddle, trefoil, revenant, saltire, nonesuch and 60 more...
-
The God Delusion
apostate, muggle, secular, antediluvian, tetragrammaton, genuflect, apocryphal, festivus, excommunicate, tenet, apostle, eschaton and 7 more...
-
*~
effluvium, nimbus, aubade, febrile, crepuscular, circumambient, evensong, eventide, desiderata, luthier, sylvan, nychthemeral and 1 more...
-
sed libera nos a malo
One of the last vestiges of my Catholic upbringing is my interest in and love for language that pertains to it.
psalm, breviary, ecclesiastical, absolve, stigmata, catechumen, hymn, chorister, plainsong, litany, benediction, cloistered and 59 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for evensong.
hernesheir "This expense should be discontinued at once". --US Railway Association, Standard Cipher Code, 1906. Railroad telegraph shorthand. Jan 22, 2013
hernesheir See evening song. Jul 29, 2010
misterpolly Even song will draw non-believers into churches. Dec 23, 2007
slumry mornsong? Jul 11, 2007
reesetee Thanks, seanahan! I'm adding your word to my Oddball Opposites list. :-) Jul 8, 2007
seanahan This is ripe for an oddsong joke. Jul 8, 2007