evensongn.
/ˈiːvnsɒŋ/, U.S. /ˈivənˌsɔŋ/, /ˈivənˌsɑŋ/ 1.
a. Christian Church. Originally, in the pre-Reformation Western Church: the service of vespers (vesper n. 6a), forming the sixth of the seven canonical hours of prayer (now historical). In later use chiefly: an Anglican service held in the afternoon or evening, with a prescribed form based on the breviary offices of vespers and compline, and consisting of prayers, psalms, canticles, Bible readings, and a recitation of the Creed (also called evening prayer).doleful evensong, Sicilian evensong: see the first element.
ΘΚΠ
society > faith > worship > canonical hours > vespers, evensong > [noun]
evensongOE
evesonga1250
evening prayer1539
evening song?1548
evening service1561
vesper1611
vespera1640
vespertine1651
vesper service1797
OE Rule St. Benet (Corpus Cambr.) xviii. 43 Se æfensang [L. vespera] sy dæghwamlice gehendod mid feower sealma dreame.
OE Ælfric Let. to Wulfsige (Corpus Cambr.) in B. Fehr Die Hirtenbriefe Ælfrics (1914) 12 Þa seofon tidsangas.., swaswa se sinoð hi gedihte: Uhtsang and primsang, undernsang and middægsang, nonsang and æfensang and nihtsang.
?c1225 (?a1200) Ancrene Riwle (Cleo. C.vi) (1972) 20 Efter euensong anan Placebo, vhche nicht seggeð ȝef ȝe beoð aise.
c1300 St. Thomas Becket (Laud) l. 2054 in C. Horstmann Early S.-Eng. Legendary (1887) 165 Þe Monekus songen Euesong, for it was wel-neiȝ eue.
1389 in J. T. Smith & L. T. Smith Eng. Gilds (1870) 17 Euery brother and sister..shullen..heren ye seruice of bothe ye euensonges and messe.
c1400 (?c1380) Pearl l. 529 At þe day of date [read at þe date of day] of euensonge, On oure byfore þe sonne go doun.
1462 in Brit. Mag. & Monthly Reg. Sept. (1834) 262 The dekyn..schal..helpe to ryng all in to matens and masse and evynsong wt his Felow.
1549 Bk. Common Prayer (STC 16267) Table Psalmes sig. A.ii (heading) Table for the ordre of the Psalmes, to be sayed at Matins and Euensong.
?1551 T. Becon Fruitful Treat. Fasting ix. sig. D.iiv Suche shuld not be counted to faste, that dyd eate before euensonge was done.
1615 T. Overbury et al. New & Choise Characters with Wife (6th impr.) sig. M7v The Countrey Lasses daunce in the Church-yard after Euensong.
1630 tr. G. Botero Relations Famous Kingdomes World (rev. ed.) 370 The common watchword was the tolling of the Bels to Even-song.
1735 A. Pope Satires of Donne ii, in Wks. II. 106 Doom'd to say his Beads and Evensong.
1817 W. Scott Rob Roy II. iv. 70 I might hae gaen to even-song, and heard Daddie Docharty mumbling his mass.
1882 C. H. Spurgeon Treasury of David VI. Ps. cxix. 97 His matin prayer..his evensong were all out of Holy Writ.
1901 N. Lorimer By Waters of Sicily 16 While you linger in the cloisters, instead of the chanting of the brothers at evensong, you hear the everlasting bugle-march of Italy.
1922 H. Walpole Cathedral i. i. 17 He could hear high, high up above him the ringing of the bell for Evensong.
1969 J. Fowles French Lieutenant's Woman iv. 26 Failure to be seen at church, both at matins and at evensong, on Sunday was tantamount to proof of the worst moral laxity.
2011 Cathedral Music May 57/1 When I was a choirboy (many years ago!), it was usual to sing a Vesper at the very end of Evensong.
b. The time of evensong; the hour of sunset. Now archaic and poetic.
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > day and night > day or daytime > evening > [noun] > sunset
sunsetOE
settle-gangc1000
evensongc1330
sun going downa1382
setc1386
decline14..
sun restc1405
sun gate down1440
sunsetting1440
sun sitting?a1475
falling1555
sunsetting1575
downsetting1582
sunfall1582
declining1588
sun go down1595
tramontation1599
vail1609
daylight gate1613
sundown1620
set of day1623
dayset1633
day shutting1673
sky setting1683
sun-under1865
c1330 (?a1300) Arthour & Merlin (Auch.) (1973) l. 4791 Fram afternone to auensong.
c1390 (a1376) W. Langland Piers Plowman (Vernon) (1867) v. l. 190 (MED) Bargeyns and Beuerages bi-gonne to aryse, And seeten so til Euensong [c1400 C text til euesong rang].
1486 Bk. St. Albans sig. cv Let hir fast till euensong.
1582 N. Lichefield tr. F. L. de Castanheda 1st Bk. Hist. Discouerie E. Indias lxvii. f. 138 It was now at this present past Euensong.
1621 First & Second Bk. Discipline (Church of Scotl.) 21 The Saterday, and other vigils to be holy daies from Evensong to Evensong.
1650 Bp. J. Taylor Rule & Exercises Holy Living ii. §6 170 If a man were but of a dayes life, it is well if he lasts till even song.
1700 J. Dryden Chaucer's Wife of Bathe's Tale in Fables 481 He bids his Beads both Even-song and Morn.
1865 A. C. Swinburne Before Dawn in Poems & Ballads 9 From evensong to day time.
1918 M. Buhler Grass in Pavement 110 From the gray dawn to twilight evensong, From evensong until the break of day.
2011 E. Cooper Songs of Earth (2012) xx. 249 It's past Evensong now and the archives are supposed to be closed.
2. A song or succession of songs sung in the evening, esp. by a bird.Often poetic and literary with allusion to sense 1a; cf. vesper n. 7.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > music > type of music > vocal music > types of song > [noun] > night or evening song
evensong1645
night-song1798
wake1813
vesperal1896
1645 J. Milton Il Penseroso in Poems 39 Thee Chauntress oft the Woods among, I woo to hear thy eeven-Song.
a1649 R. Crashaw Carmen Deo Nostro (1652) 43 Sitt thee down, & sing thine Eue'nsong in the sad tree's shade.
1858 Harper's Mag. Mar. 536/1 And the rooks came home cawing their even song.
1876 ‘Ouida’ In Winter City xii. 373 Flocks of birds..were singing their sweet shrill evensong.
1921 Outing May 63/3 We camped there with the water lapping its evensong in our ears.
2012 A. Bance tr. M. Beyer Kaltenburg v. i. 258 Soon the blackbirds would take their places in the treetops to begin their evensong.
Compounds
General attributive, as evensong bell, evensong prayer, evensong service, †evensong tide, evensong time, etc.
ΚΠ
c1330 in Englische Studien (1886) 9 46/1 (MED) Þo euensongtime was icome, Doun of þe rode he was inome.
c1425 Bk. Found. St. Bartholomew's (1923) 17 (MED) At evensong tyme, whan derkenys drew vpon, ther was seyn a light from heuyn.
?a1500 Nominale (Yale Beinecke 594) in T. Wright & R. P. Wülcker Anglo-Saxon & Old Eng. Vocab. (1884) I. 801/44 Hoc vesperum, a hewynsongtyde.
1523 Ld. Berners tr. J. Froissart Cronycles I. f. CC.xlvv/1 The yonge kyng entred in to Reynes, the saturday at euensongtyme.
1631 J. Weever Anc. Funerall Monuments 640 At Euensong time, the Deuill entred into this Church, in the likenesse of a Gray Frier.
1641 J. Milton Animadversions 20 To diet their ignorance..with the limited draught of a Mattin, and even song drench.
1854 C. Knight Old Printer & Mod. Press i. viii. 153 It was evensong time when..the printers in the Almonry at Westminster prepared to close the doors of their workshop.
1874 Church Herald 23 Dec. 769/1 There will be a short Evensong service at 9 o'clock at St. Mary's, Haggerston.
1879 A. Reed Alice Bridge 89 Who did I see last evensongtide knitting so fast.
1909 Smart Set June 120/2 Once more the evensong bell sounded and she went in with him and knelt in her usual place.
1918 S. M. Best Merry Eng. v. 58 It was evensong time, and the sun in the west looked like a ship of fire going down amid wild gray breakers.
2008 Cathedral Music Nov. 15/2 Canon Brian Mountford..made reference in his Evensong address to ‘theological jazz’.
2015 J. Schaverien Boarding School Syndrome v. 67 A quote from the evensong prayer.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2018; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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n.OE