burse

American  

[burs] / bɜrs /

noun

1. a pouch or case for some special purpose.

2. (in Scotland)

   1. a fund to provide allowances for students.

   2. an allowance so provided.

3. Ecclesiastical. a case or receptacle for a corporal.

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burse British  

/ bɜːs /

noun

1. RC Church a flat case used at Mass as a container for the corporal

2. 1. a fund providing allowances for students

   2. the allowance provided

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Etymology

Origin of burse

1250–1300; Middle English < Anglo-French < Late Latin bursa purse; see bursa

Example Sentences

At the altar, Vincent had carried the missal to the right again, and Abbe Mouret had just folded the corporal and slipped it within the burse.

From Abbe Mouret's Transgression by Zola, Émile

After his conversion many persons demanded that he should make restitution to the burse fund, which, according to them, he had employed against the intentions of the founders.

From The Irish Ecclesiastical Record, Volume 1, June 1865 by Various

At the Easter of 1853 M. Laemmer passed from the university of Koenigsberg to that of Leipsic, on a burse founded in the old Catholic times by a Catholic priest of his native town.

From The Irish Ecclesiastical Record, Volume 1, June 1865 by Various

As he was hiding the chalice by gathering together the folds in the veil of cloth of gold matching the chasuble, La Teuse exclaimed: 'Stop, there's no corporal in the burse.

From Abbe Mouret's Transgression by Zola, Émile

He carried across his arm the second white-sleeved kirtle that he had, and his burse was on his girdle.

From The History of Richard Raynal, Solitary by Benson, Robert Hugh