opentyde

[prettygoodword]

opentyde - n., the period between Epiphany and Ash Wednesday.


I said I wouldn't use much from Forgotten English, but this one is too interesting to pass up. Opentyde was one of the three seasons for getting married in traditional England -- presumably because there was no religious reason to avoid them, such as the peri-Easter observances.

The calendar tells me that today is the feast day of St. Paula the Bearded.

---L.

Comments

[movingfinger.livejournal.com]

I'm not being combative, but as I'm just reading my way through both of Hutton's books, and haven't seen this mentioned yet, can you give a reference to follow up? Citation(s)? (OED offers one single authoritative citation, and that not a religious/civil one, under open-tide.)

It's an excellent word.

[prettygoodword.livejournal.com]

This is what I have -- from the 2009 Forgotten English calendar by Jefferey Kacirk. Both are mentioned more or less in passing on his way to other material more directly related to the word of the day, and neither is sourced:

• On 6 January: "Opentyde, which ran from today, the Feast of Epiphany, through Ash Wednesday, when marriages commonly took place."
  
• On 12 January: "Marrying Days once began about this date in Britain, running through Septuagesima Sunday on February 8--the first of three annual wedding "seasons.""

(Bolding in the original, where they were set off as subheads.) Something of a disconnect there, as Septuagesima Sunday is two and a half weeks before Lent starts.

---L.

[movingfinger.livejournal.com]

Hm. The entry for 6 January uses a 15c spelling for the word but quotes an 18c scholar as quoted in the OED, nearly verbatim.

By the way, if you don't have The Secret Life of Words by Henry Hitchings already, you should order it; you will enjoy it. A friend sent it to me last year. Can't remember whether I mentioned it to you already.

[prettygoodword.livejournal.com]

Sounds like I would, yes.

---L.