ferial

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   relating to an ordinary weekday rather than a religious festival, especially in Christian liturgy

   The monastery follows a simpler ferial service on ordinary weekdays.

2. 2
   adj

   festive or characteristic of a holiday; a rare literary sense

   A ferial mood spread through the crowd as the parade began.

From Medieval Latin ferialis, based on Latin feria, a weekday, and feriae, holidays or religious festivals. Those related singular and plural forms account for the apparently opposed senses ordinary weekday and festive.

Topics