quadragesimaln.adj.
/ˌkwɒdrəˈdʒɛsᵻml/, U.S. /ˌkwɑdrəˈdʒɛsəm(ə)l/ A. n.† 1. A Lent sermon. Obsolete.† 2. A fast lasting forty days; (more generally) any fast. Obsolete.† 3. Chiefly in plural. Lent offerings, esp. those made on the middle Sunday in Lent. Obsolete.
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society > faith > worship > preaching > [noun] > instance of > preached at Lent
quadragesimal1511
1511 H. Watson tr. St. Bernardino Chirche of Euyll Men & Women sig. Divv Mayster Ambrose sphyera in his quadragesimal of the floure of sapyence.
1691 A. Gavin Frauds Romish Monks 284 They who print their Quadragesimals and their Advent Sermons,..never print the Second part of them.
1699 W. Wotton tr. L. E. Du Pin New Eccl. Hist. XIII. iv. 81 Father La Haye does not think that the two Quadragesimale's which are in this Tome are truly St. Bernardin's.
1726 A. Parkinson Collectanea Anglo-Minoritica 145 On the Quadragesimal, (or Homilies for Lent) of St. Gregory Pope, One Book.
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society > faith > worship > liturgical year > fast > [noun] > period of > of 40 days
lent of pardon (formerly also penance)c1450
carenec1503
quadragesimal1565
1565 W. Allen Def. & Declar. Doctr. Purgatory i. vi. f. 172 For our onely monthes and yeres oblations, in Damascens daies..there were customably kept tricesimales, quadragesimales, anniuersariae memoriae: the thirtithe, the .xl. the yeres mindes.
1660 Bp. J. Taylor Ductor Dubitantium II. iii. iv. 282 It is no wonder..that all the set and stationary fasts of the Primitive Christians were called Quadragesimals.
1684 J. Lightfoot Wks. II. iv. 405 Moses in his dealings with God, fasted forty days, three times one after another... His first quadragesimal, was Exod. XXIV. 18.
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society > faith > worship > benefice > other financial matters > [noun] > collection > during Lent
quadragesimal1651
quadragesimalia1738
1651 J. Saint-Amard tr. F. Micanzio Life Father Paul sig. K6v Fra. Bernado had written to Fra. Gio Francesco to solicite Fran. Antonio to dispatch the Quadragesimale [It. à spedire quel Quadragesimale], for that the foure hundred crownes were in a readinesse, and should be put into his hands.
1701 W. Kennett Cowell's Interpreter (new ed.) at Letare Jerusalem The old duty of Quadragesimals, or the Customary Oblations made on Midlent-Sunday.
1721 N. Bailey Universal Etymol. Eng. Dict. Quadragesimals, Mid-Lent contributions, Offerings made by People to their Mother Church on Mid-Lent Sunday.
4. A set of forty. rare.
ΚΠ
1660 Bp. J. Taylor Ductor Dubitantium II. iii. iv. 282 A quadragesimal of hours is as proper as a quadragesimal of days.
1990 San Francisco Chron. (Nexis) 18 Feb. (Sunday Punch) 2 There is testimony in the Bible..of a divine predilection for the numbers 3, 7 and 40. Why shouldn't we bunch our years in triads, heptads or quadragesimals?
B. adj.
1. Of, relating to, or appropriate for the period of Lent; Lenten. Also figurative.
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society > faith > worship > liturgical year > feast, festival > specific Christian festivals > Lent > [adjective]
Lentena1225
quadragesimal1610
1610 T. Bell Catholique Triumph xxviii. 359 The same (Catholique) Church continuing in Fasting, accustometh in like maner, to keepe the Quadragesimall time (or Lent) Seauen dayes before the Feast of Easter.
1629 J. Mabbe tr. C. de Fonseca Deuout Contempl. (title page) Two and Fortie Sermons upon all ye Quadragesimall Gospells.
a1643 W. Cartwright Ordinary (1651) iii. v. 49 Quadragessimall wits, and fancies leane As ember weeks.
1691 A. Wood Athenæ Oxonienses II. 359 Quadragesimal Disputations were publickly performed in the Schools.
1728 E. Chambers Cycl. at Quadragesima Hence, some Monks are said to lead a Quadragesimal Life; or to live on Quadragesimal Food all the Year.
1773 J. Pechell Hist. Univ. Oxf. to Demise Queen Elizabeth 174 Leave..which they, and other batchelors afterwards, at the same quadragesimal season obtained, but on no other condition, then that they determined on the day and vigil of St. Patric and St. Mary.
1831 J. Millingen Mem. Affairs Greece iv. 48 They could realize money by exporting..fish-roe, the favourite quadragesimal food of every orthodox Greek.
1882 J. W. Legg Notes Hist. Liturg. Colours iii. 40 The colour of the Quadragesimal ornaments.
1951 R. J. Deferrari tr. Hugh Saint Victor De Sacramentis ii. 296 Those who are to be baptized on the Holy Sabbath of the paschal solemnity, are brought to the church on the fourth habdomada of the quadragesimal observance.
1987 Speculum 62 661 The synoptic table devoted to the quadragesimal section of the sacramentary begins with Septuagesima and proceeds to the end of Lent.
2003 B. Roest in S. Gersh & B. Roest Medieval & Renaissance Humanism 133 In a quadragesimal sermon delivered in Siena that same year,..Bernardino elaborated the importance of study as a vehicle to arrive at true wisdom.
2. Of a fast, esp. during Lent: lasting for forty days.
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the world > time > period > a day or twenty-four hours > [adjective] > of or lasting specific number of days
novendial1533
triduan1597
quadragesimal1610
hebdomadal1612
quinquagesimal1652
tricenary1655
septuary1700
tridiurnal1828
trigesimal1839
trihemeral1840
ninety-day1859
three-day1890
society > faith > worship > liturgical year > fast > [adjective] > 40 days
quadragesimal1610
1610 T. Bell Catholique Triumph xxviii. 362 Thus discourseth this holy and learned Father, constantly affirming with other auncient and learned Writers; that the Quadragesimall fast (which we call Lent) was free and voluntarie in the time of the Apostles.
1654 H. Hammond Answer Animadversions on Diss. touching Ignatius's Epist. ii. §2. 38 The Quadrigessimal Fast was observed in the Church to commemorate both these.
1725 D. Cotes tr. L. E. Du Pin New Eccl. Hist. 17th Cent. I. v. 171 The Quadragesimal Fast was also regarded as Penance.
a1773 A. Butler Moveable Feasts Catholic Church (1774) v. i. 201 The Canons of Councils, which, from the third Century to our Times, strictly enjoin the Observance of the Quadragesimal Fast.
1841 W. H. Mill Observ. Applic. Pantheistic Princ. ii. 33 The retirement and quadragesimal fast of Elijah.
1885 W. E. Addis & T. Arnold Catholic Dict. (ed. 3) (at cited word) The Lenten indults, by which the Pope authorises the bishops, according to the circumstances of different countries, to dispense more or less with the rigour of the canons as to the quadragesimal fast.
1915 A. Alexander tr. A. Lagarde & A. Lagarde Lat. Church in Middle Ages ii. 53 For most of the faithful penance consisted only in observing the quadragesimal fast collectively and semi-publicly.
1969 A. Ahmad Intellect. Hist. Islam in India iii. 31 His followers..performed ascetic exercises, including quadragesimal fasts, in cells and finally reached a spiritual state where they were considered free from the obligations of the ritual of the shari'a.
2004 B. Varghese W. Syrian Liturg. Theol. ix. 136 The Christmas and Easter cycles begin with the quadragesimal fast.
3. Amounting to forty; (of a period of time) lasting or occurring every forty days, years, etc.
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the world > relative properties > number > specific numbers > eleven to ninety-nine > [adjective] > forty > consisting of forty
quadragesimal1662
1662 P. Gunning Paschal or Lent-Fast 50 The Quadragesimal number not constituted of men, but consecrated from God.
1854 Jrnl. Statist. Soc. 17 121 The series of years running in quadragesimal periods, he made the rather loose assumption that the population increased in the same ratio as the deaths, and thence concluded that it doubled itself in 40 years.
1951 Kerrville (Texas) Times 18 July 3/3 Folk-lore has it that if there be rain on July 15th there will be rain every day for the rest of the quadragesimal period.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2007; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.adj.1511