feria
1 Americannoun
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feriae,
plural
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ferias
plural
noun
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ferias
plural
noun
Usage
What does feria mean? Feria is a word used in the Roman Catholic Church to refer to a weekday on which no feast is celebrated. In this context, a feria is any weekday (Monday through Friday) that doesn’t celebrate a holy mystery, event, or person (such as a saint). Days that celebrate one of these are called feast days. The plural of feria is feriae or ferias. The adjective form of this meaning of feria is ferial, as in Monday is a ferial day. The religious sense of feria is not commonly used today, even among most Catholics. You’re much more likely to hear the word feria in Spanish, in which it refers to a local fair or festival, especially one to celebrate a local saint. Example: Friday was a feria because there was no religious feast celebrated.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of feria
First recorded 1760–65; from Late Latin: “day of the week” (e.g. secunda fēria “second day, Monday”); in Latin only plural fēriae “holidays”; see fair 2
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Swinging into the spirit of the feria, Jackie donned the traditional comb and mantilla to accompany Garrigues to her second bullfight.
From Time Magazine Archive
The man who had painted pinturas de la feria only three years ago could now choose his own commissions.
From Murillo by S. L. (Samuel Levy) Bensusan
Shortly after Holy Week, Seville has another gay festival, this time called a "feria," which is rather like a big country fair.
From Getting to know Spain by Don Lambo
The preces dominicales at Prime and Compline have a form of their own, additions being made in the preces of Prime when said on a feria.
From The Divine Office by Edward J. Quigley
The diversions of the feria struck me as innocent, perhaps childish; but there was none of the coarseness and the squalor of a fair in England.
From The Story of Seville by C. Gasquoine (Catherine Gasquoine) Hartley
Among the feriae conceptivae were the very ancient feriae Latinae, held in honour of Jupiter on the Alban Mount, and attended by all the higher magistrates and the whole body of the senate.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 10, Slice 2 "Fairbanks, Erastus" to "Fens" by Various
Some remarks upon the numerous "mummeries" and festas of the inhabitants lead him into a long digression upon the feriae of the Romans.
From Travels through France and Italy by T. (Tobias) Smollett
Non-privileged feriae are the feriae of Lent and Advent, Quarter Tense or Ember days and Rogation Monday.
From The Divine Office by Edward J. Quigley
In the Augustan age the feriae stativae were very numerous, as may be seen from what we possess of the Fasti of Ovid.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 10, Slice 2 "Fairbanks, Erastus" to "Fens" by Various
Of a similar nature—marking, as Ovid tells us, the completion of the sowing—was the feriae sementivae or Paganalia, associated with the earth-goddesses, Ceres and Tellus.
From The Religion of Ancient Rome by Cyril Bailey
The preces are said at Lauds and Vespers in ferias of Advent and at the small Hours; preces are said, too, if they be said at Lauds.
From The Divine Office by Edward J. Quigley
Ferias are divided into three classes, major ferias, privileged ferias and non-privileged.
From The Divine Office by Edward J. Quigley
In the Breviary, before the recent reform, twelve psalms were recited in the first nocturn of Sundays and on ferias.
From The Divine Office by Edward J. Quigley
The collect of a ferial Office is found in Office of the previous Sunday, except in ferias of Lent and Rogation days which have special and proper collects.
From The Divine Office by Edward J. Quigley
The rearrangement secured the recitation of the whole Psalter once a week, the length of the office on Sundays and ferias was reduced, while the complexities of the calendar were simplified.
From Pope Pius the Tenth by F. A. (Frances Alice) Forbes
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
