tierce
1
9.9
A short time when Christians pray at about nine in the morning
- noun
- /tɪərs/
- Archaic
:
tercia
- The community gathers each Wednesday morning to observe tierce, marking a moment of reflection and worship.
Examples
-
Up it rode Sir Bradwen with a merry heart, and before tierce beheld a distant hill flashing in the sunshine.
Fiction book (2002) -
Every day at 9 a.m., the church bells ring to signal tierce, inviting the faithful to prayer.
-
During the service, the priest leads the congregation in prayers for tierce as the sun rises high in the sky.
Synonyms
9.9
A short church prayer time around nine in the morning
is the same in meaning but uses an alternative spelling with an extra vowel
Surface Forms
Etymology
Tierce for the church hour comes from the Latin tertia, which means 'third', because it was the third hour after sunrise; so tierce is the prayer time about 9 a.m..