undern-time

English

Noun

undern-time (usually uncountable, plural undern-times)

1. (archaic, obsolete, rare) The third hour of daylight (about 9 am); terce.
   • 1811, Ben Jonson, Peter Whalley, The Dramatic Works of Ben Jonson, Printed from the Text, page 456:

     The undern time of day is said by some to be the third hour, or nine o'clock; and the repast then taken was called undermele.

   • 1853, James Morton (editor), The Ancren Riwle, A Treatise On The Rules and Duties of Monastic Life, page 25:

     Say seven psalms, and those fifteen psalms about undern time, for about such time as mass is sung in all religious communities, when our Lord suffered pain upon the cross, ye ought to be especially in prayers and supplications, and also from Prime till mid-morrow, when the secular priests sing their masses.

   • 1867, Richard Morris (editor), Old English Homilies and Homiletic Treatises, Sawles Warde, and Þe Wohunge of Ure Lauerd : Ureisuns of Ure Louerd and of Ure Lefdi, &c. of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries, Edited from MSS. in the British Museum, Lambeth, and Bodleian Libraries, Part 1, page 90:

     Then answered Peter, "It is undern time (the third hour), how might we at this time be drunken? But the saying of the prophet Joel is now fulfilled. God said through the mouth of the prophet that he would send his spirit over human flesh, and men's sons shall prophesy, and I will send my tokens on the earth."

   • 1887, Henry Morley, William Hall Griffin, English Writers, An Attempt Towards a History of English Literature , Volume 4, page 126:

     Adam was created at undern-time - about nine in the morning - Eve was made out of his side at midday; they broke the command at once, and were expelled from Paradise at noon; noon having here its original meaning of the ninth hour, which slipped afterwards back to midday with a change of hour in the noon-tide meal.

   • 1906, William Henry Abraham, The Position of the Eucharist in Sunday Worship, page 90:

     Of Under, or Tierce: "At Undern we ought to praise God, because at Undern-time Christ was by the judgment of the Jews condemned to death ... On the Day of Pentecost came the Holy Ghost at Undern-time upon the Apostles […]