vespers

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   an evening service of prayer in several Christian traditions; one of the canonical hours

   The monks gathered for vespers as the daylight faded.

2. 2
   noun

   literary: evening songs or sounds likened to a religious service

   The birds began their vespers from the trees around the lake.

From Middle English vespers and Old French vespres, from Ecclesiastical Latin vesperae, 'evening prayers,' based on Latin vesper, 'evening.' The plural form became the name of the church office and was later extended poetically to evening song.

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