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

• lofeday, lovedai, love-day, love day, lowe-day, lufday

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

• “lǒve-dai, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.