easter term
/ˈistəɹ ˌtɜɹm/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.09 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Synonym of Paschal term (“the fourteenth day of the first lunar month of spring, formerly used in calculating dates”).
noun
The third term of the legal year, running from April to May, during which the upper courts of England and Wales, and Ireland, sit to hear cases.
noun
The summer term of the University of Cambridge, and other educational institutions, running from April to June; equivalent to Trinity term at the universities of Oxford and Dublin. The term was modelled after the legal term, but does not begin and end on the same dates.
Example Sentences
- "There are four terms in the year, viz. […] 3. Easter term, which begins on the tenth day after Easter Sunday, and ends on the day before Whitsunday."
Etymology
From Late Middle English ester term (“Christian season of Easter; spring quarter of the year”), from ester (“Easter”) + term, terme (“limit of a span of time; point in time”). Ester is derived from Old English ēastre, apparently from Ēastre (name of a goddess whose festival was celebrated at the vernal equinox), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *Austrǭ, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ews- (“to become light; to dawn”); terme is borrowed from Old French terme, from Latin terminus (“a bound, boundary, limit, end; in Medieval Latin, also a time, period, word, covenant, etc.”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *térmn̥ (“stump, end, boundary”) (whence also thrum). By surface analysis, Easter + term. The Christian feast day of Easter, which falls between 22 March and 25 April, often occurs during this term. As regards sense 1 (“fourteenth day of the first lunar month of spring”), Easter is the first Sunday following this day.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈistəɹ ˌtɜɹm/
- British English: /ˈiːstə tɜːm/