feria

Forms

fēria f (genitive fēriae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is a singular made from fēriae “holidays”, the plural that Classical Latin used.^[1][2] The DMLBS labels the singular Late Latin and notes that the classical word is plural only,^[2] and Conte gives Late Latin ⟨feria⟩ as the source of Italian fiera (“fair”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds the singular above all in the sense “day of the week”, which is always singular, in Late Latin reckonings of the calendar such as the Computus Carthaginiensis of 455 and the Easter tables of Victorius of Aquitaine, where it is often abbreviated ⟨fer.⟩.^[4][5] Festus has a singular too, which the TLL suspects is a slip of his abridger Paul the Deacon.^[4][6]

Semantic evolution

The Church counted the days of the week as fēriae: Sunday was fēria prīma, Monday fēria secunda, and so on to Saturday, fēria septima, which was also called sabbatum.^[7][8][1] Bede repeats the tradition that Pope Silvester first taught the clergy to name the days this way.^[7] In the liturgy a fēria came to mean an ordinary weekday on which no feast falls.^[1]

Medieval Latin also kept the older senses of a pause from work, a vacation of the law courts, and a feast day or holiday.^[7][2] It also came to mean a fair, a market held on fixed days under a privilege, and then the place where the fair was held;^[8][7][2] in this sense it appears in altered spellings such as ⟨feira⟩, ⟨fera⟩ and ⟨fira⟩.^[8][7] This is the sense that Italian fiera and French foire continue.^[4][3]

Timeline

• 455 AD – The Computus Carthaginiensis uses it of a day of the week.^[4][5]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville uses the singular in his rule for monks.^[4][5]
• first half of the 7th century – Desiderius of Cahors uses it.^[5]
• first third of the 8th century – Bede writes that Pope Silvester taught the clergy to keep the fēriae of the week.^[7][5]
• 782 – A charter of Lorsch speaks of “the day of the moon, which we call the second fēria”.^[7]
• 1096 – An English royal charter grants a three-day fair on St Giles' Hill at Winchester.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Late Latin) A holiday; a religious festival or holy day.^[1][2][7]
2. (Ecclesiastical Latin) A day of the week, counted from Sunday: fēria secunda “Monday”, fēria sexta “Friday”.^[8][7][9][1]
3. (Ecclesiastical Latin) A weekday on which no feast is kept, a ferial day.^[1]
4. (Medieval Latin) A pause from work; a vacation of the courts.^[7]
5. (Medieval Latin) A fair, a periodic market; the place where it is held.^[8][7][2]

Related words

• fēstus

Usage notes

Köbler records a different medieval feria “ferry”, from 1301, which he connects with Old Norse ferja (“ferry”).^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
8. ^ a b c d e Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
9. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson