offertory

English

Etymology

From Late Latin offertorium, from the participle stem of offere (“to offer”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɒfət(ə)ɹi/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈɑfəɹˌtɔɹi/

Noun

offertory (plural offertories)

1. (Christianity) A prayer said or sung as an anthem while offerings of bread and wine are placed on the altar during the Roman Catholic Mass or the Anglican Communion service. [from 14th c.]
   • 1922, Sinclair Lewis, Babbitt, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace and Company, →OCLC:

     There was an impressive musical program, conducted by Sheldon Smeeth, educational director of the Y.M.C.A., who also sang the offertory.

2. (Christianity) The part of the Eucharist service when offerings of bread and wine are placed on the altar and when any collection is taken; also, the money or other things collected. [from 15th c.]
   • 1914, Stephen Leacock, Arcadian Adventures with the Idle Rich:

     Before a month had passed the congregation at the evening service at St. Asaph's Church was so slender that the offertory, as Mr. Furlong senior himself calculated, was scarcely sufficient to pay the overhead charge of collecting it.

   • 1922, Upton Sinclair, They Call Me Carpenter:

     I sat through the sermon, and the offertory, and the recessional.

   • 1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society, published 2012, page 30:

     Even the coins in the offertory were accredited with magical value; there were numerous popular superstitions about the magical value of communion silver as a cure for illness or a lucky charm against danger.

3. (Christianity, historical) A linen or silken cloth anciently used in various ceremonies connected with the administration of the Eucharist.

Related terms

• offer
• offering
• oblate
• oblation

Translations

the offering of sacremental bread and wine to God during a church service

• Dutch: offertorium (nl) n
• German: Gabenbereitung f
• Italian: offertorio (it) m
• Polish: ofertorium n, offertorium n, ofiarowanie (pl) n
• Portuguese: ofertório (pt) m
• Spanish: ofertorio (es) m

money offered or donated during a church service

• Bulgarian: дарение (bg) n (darenie)
• Dutch: collecte (nl)
• Finnish: kolehti (fi)
• German: Kollekte (de) f
• Maori: ohaoha

the part of a church service when offerings are collected

• Dutch: collecte (nl)
• Maori: ohaoha

music sung or played during the offertory of a church service

• German: Offertorium n
• Italian: offertorio (it) m

Middle English

Noun

offertory

1. (Christianity) offertory
   • 1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “(please specify the story)”, in The Canterbury Tales, [Westminster: William Caxton, published 1478], →OCLC; republished in [William Thynne], editor, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, […], [London]: […] [Richard Grafton for] Iohn Reynes […], 1542, →OCLC:

     But alderbest he sang an offertory: / For well he wiste, when that song was sung, / He muste preach […].

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)