Good Fridayn.
/ˌɡʊd ˈfrʌɪdeɪ/, /ˌɡʊd ˈfrʌɪdi/, U.S. /ˌɡʊd ˈfraɪˌdeɪ/, /ˌɡʊd ˈfraɪdi/ The Friday before Easter Sunday, on which the Crucifixion of Christ is commemorated in the Christian Church, traditionally observed as a day of fasting and penance.
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society > faith > worship > liturgical year > feast, festival > specific Christian festivals > Holy Week > [noun] > Good Friday
ParasceveOE
Long FridayOE
Good Fridayc1300
passion day1601
c1300 St. John Evangelist (Laud) 27 in C. Horstmann Early S.-Eng. Legendary (1887) 403 A-morewe, ase on þe guode friday, ase he deide on þe rode.
c1300 St. Brendan (Laud) l. 366 in C. Horstmann Early S.-Eng. Legendary (1887) 229 Þare heo gounnen bi-leue A-gode friday al þe longue day for-to an ester eue.
a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) l. 17288 + 81 Vse we ay After heghe ful of þe moyne to take þe next friday, And þat hald we our gode friday.
?a1425 (c1400) Mandeville's Trav. (Titus C.xvi) (1919) 50 Þere is a lampe þat hongeth before the Sepulcre..& on the gode Fryday it goth out be himself.
c1429 Mirour Mans Saluacioune (1986) l. 2947 Thus myght doelfulle Marye say on the Gude Fridaye.
1532 T. More Confut. Tyndale in Wks. 651/2 The .iii. golden frydayes, that is to wit, the frydaye nexte after Palme sundaye, and the frydaye next afore easter day, and good fryday.
1579 E. Spenser Shepheardes Cal. Feb. 30 So semest thou like good fryday to frowne.
1635 F. Quarles Emblemes v. vii. Epigr. 271 Cheare up, my soule..and beare One bad Good-Friday; Full-mouth'd Easter's neare.
1662 A. Conway Let. 24 May in Conway Lett. (1992) iv. 224 Since good fryday I have not been able to goe abroad.
1738 H. Taylor Let. 19 Sept. in T. Secker Corr. (1991) 18 I shall officiate on Xtmas day & Good Fryday according to Your Lordships directions.
1791 J. Boswell Life Johnson anno 1783 II. 444 On April 18, (being Good-Friday,) I found him..drinking tea without milk, and eating a cross-bun to prevent faintness.
1837 Times 24 Feb. 2/5 On last Holy Thursday or Good Friday they were at the bakehouse of the Sieur Montonnet to heat the oven.
1859 G. A. Sala Twice round Clock (1861) 80 What becomes of all the cold crossbuns after Good Friday?
1868 W. M. Campion & W. J. Beaumont Prayer-bk. Interleaved (1876) 115 The term Good Friday is peculiar to the English Church.
1928 Public Opinion 6 Apr. 325/1 The newspapers do not publish on Good Friday.
1991 J. Trollope Rector's Wife vii. 87 The three-hour service on Good Friday, when Peter liked the church quite unadorned, with the crucifix above the altar shrouded in black.
2010 Leicester Mercury (Nexis) 7 Apr. 15 It is Good Friday and that is a Bank Holiday.
Compounds
C1.
a. General attributive, as Good Friday mass, Good Friday service, etc.
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1491 Mirk's Festialis (Caxton) sig. eiijv Our lorde Ihesu crist, that suffred for vs & all mankynde on good friday passion.
1563 Bp. J. Pilkington Burnynge of Paules Church sig. C.viiiv Good fridaye masse.
1595 A. Copley Wits Fittes & Fancies iii. 93 A Preacher in his good-friday sermon.
1663 J. Carleton Ultimum Vale 26 On Good-fryday night, she would not go to Bed, she said, but be at her Devotion.
1753 J. White Protestant Englishman iv. §4. 285 If it was not consider'd as an Object of divine Adoration, what means the Good-Friday Service, and all the Ceremonies thereof.
1819 W. Scott Ivanhoe II. vii. 104 Like a village girl at her first confession upon Good Friday eve.
1890 Dublin Rev. July 81 All of these are represented in the Good Friday Mass.
1956 Life 2 Apr. 112/2 (caption) Good Friday communion for the congregation, long forbidden, is prepared by Rev. Ellis Wulfers carrying Blessed Sacrament under an umbrallino.
1961 J. Toland But not in Shame v. xx. 316 Dirty clouds of smoke still rose to the left where woods were smoldering from the cataclysmic Good Friday bombardment.
1992 St. Louis (Missouri) Post-Dispatch (Nexis) 16 Apr. 3 a Christ Church Cathedral (Episcopal), 1210 Locust Street, will have Good Friday services at noon and 12:30 p.m.
2011 Liverpool Echo (Nexis) 21 Apr. 70 Evans will go straight into the Centurions squad for the club's Good Friday fixture with Barrow.
b. attributive, designating cakes, buns, etc., traditionally baked and eaten on Good Friday, esp. hot cross buns. Chiefly in Good Friday bun. Now rare.Traditionally some buns were baked until dry, hung up, and grated for medicinal use throughout the year.
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1623 G. Markham Countrey Contentments, or Eng. Huswife (new ed.) vi. 223 Of these Gerts are made the good Friday pudding.
1654 E. Gayton Pleasant Notes Don Quixot i. v. 17 A piece of the groaning Cake, (as they call it) which she kept religiously, with her Good Friday Bun, full forty good yeares.
1753 Trial W. Smith in J. Blackburne Reg. Ingleby (1889) p. xxviii Mixing Arsenick in a Good-Friday Cake.
1825 Manch. Guardian 2 Apr. 3/3 In the houses of some ignorant people, a Good Friday bun is still kept ‘for luck’, and sometimes there hangs from the ceiling a hard biscuit-like cake of open cross-work, baked on a Good Friday, to remain there till displaced on the next Good Friday by one of similar make.
1876 F. K. Robinson Gloss. Words Whitby Pref. p. xii Best flour biscuits are made on Good Friday, to be kept as a year's supply for grating into milk or brandy and water to cure the diarrhœa; and with holes in the centre, we have seen ‘Good Friday biscuits’ hanging from the ceiling.
1905 B. Capes Jay of Italy iii. 27 He was none the less savage against circumstances—vicious, desperate, insolent with his master, as cross all over as a Good Friday bun.
1945 Strand Mag. Apr. 96 (crossword clue) A Good Friday cake that some hang up as a charm against evil (3, 5, 3) [= hot cross bun].
C2.
Good Friday agreement n. Politics an agreement between the British and Irish governments and the main political parties of Northern Ireland, setting out proposals for the securing of peace in Northern Ireland, including provisions for the formation of new political assemblies and commitments regarding such issues as the release of prisoners and the decommissioning of the weapons of paramilitary organizations. The agreement was reached at Stormont Castle, Belfast, on Good Friday (10 April) 1998, and its terms passed by public referendums in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland on 22 May 1998.
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1998 Belfast News Let. (Nexis) 31 Mar. Confidently forecasting a Good Friday agreement, he [sc. Senator George Mitchell] said: ‘I think I have enough experience to judge when something is realistic.’]
1998 Press Jrnl. (Vero Beach, Florida) 11 Apr. a15 President Clinton called the Good Friday agreement ‘the best chance for peace in a generation.’
2001 B. Ahern in Herald (Glasgow) (Electronic ed.) 2 Feb. These are issues that are extremely important for the peace and security of everybody in Ireland and to see the full implementation of the Good Friday Agreement.
2010 Church Times 10 Sept. 13/3 Since the Good Friday Agreement, increasing numbers of Roman Catholics serve in the Police Service of Northern Ireland.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2014; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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