dominical letter

American  

noun

1. any one of the letters from A to G used in church calendars to mark the Sundays throughout any particular year, serving primarily to aid in determining the date of Easter.

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dominical letter British  

noun

1. Christianity any one of the letters A to G as used to denote Sundays in a given year in order to determine the church calendar

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Etymology

Origin of dominical letter

First recorded in 1570–80

Example Sentences

This is an excellent rule; the same, I believe, that is to this day prescribed for arriving at the Dominical letter of the Old Style.

From Project Gutenberg

Dominical, do-min′ik-al, adj. belonging to our Lord, as the Lord's Prayer, the Lord's Day.—Dominical letter, one of the first seven letters of the alphabet, used in calendars to mark the Sundays throughout the year.

From Project Gutenberg

Rule for finding the Dominical Letter 44 Chapter V.— Rule for finding the day of the week of any given date, for both Old and New Styles 50 Chapter VI.—

From Project Gutenberg

Dominical letter, one of the first seven letters of the alphabet used to denote the Sabbath or Lord’s day.

From Project Gutenberg

As A represented all the Sundays in 1837 and as A always stands for the first day of January, so in 1838 it will represent all the Mondays, and the dominical letter goes back from A to G; so that G represents all the Sundays in 1838, A all the Mondays, B all the Tuesdays, and so on, the dominical letter going back one place in every year of 365 days.

From Project Gutenberg