loveday

See also: Loveday

English

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English loveday; equivalent to love + day.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈlʌvdeɪ/

Noun

loveday (plural lovedays)

  1. (now historical) A day appointed for a meeting intended to amicably resolve a dispute; also the meeting held on such a day. [from 14th c.]
    • c. 1385, William Langland, Piers Plowman, section III:
      She ledeth þe lawe as hire list · and louedayes maketh / And doth men lese þorw hire loue · þat lawe myȝte wynne.
    • 1983, John Bossy, Disputes and Settlements: Law and Human Relations in the West, page 60:
      legal records cannot provide consistent evidence about lovedays because they were, strictly speaking, outside their terms of reference […].
    • 1994, John Clarence Bedell, Dispute Settlement and the Control of Violence in England, 1272-1330:
      In our period, all the people of England made lovedays, from the richest to the poorest.
  2. (chiefly poetical) A day devoted to love. (Can we add an example for this sense?)

Middle English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From love (love) + day.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈluv(ə)ˌdæi̯/

Noun

loveday (plural lovedayes)

  1. loveday (day for dispute resolution)
  2. (figuratively) Any time of peaceableness.

Descendants

  • English: loveday (now historical)

References

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