undern

• underne, undirn

From Middle English undern, ondern, from Old English undern (“third hour of the day; nine o'clock; morning”), from Proto-Germanic *undurniz (“interval”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁n̥ter, *h₁enter (“between”). Cognate with dialectal Dutch onder, dialectal German Untern, dialectal Swedish undarn.

undern (uncountable)

1. (obsolete) Synonym of terce: the third hour of daylight (about 9 am). [10^th-15^thc.]
   • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter ij, in Le Morte Darthur, book XI:

     ...wete yow wel that sir launcelot was glad and soo was that lady Elayne
     that she had geten sir launcelot in her armes...
     and soo they lay to gyders vntyl vndorne on the morn
     and alle the wyndowes and holes of that chamber were stopped that no manere of day myghte be sene

2. (obsolete) Synonym of noon: the sixth hour of daylight (12 pm). [14^th-15^thc.]
3. (Britain dialectal) Synonym of afternoon. [15^thc.]
4. (Britain dialectal) Synonym of evening. [15^thc.]
5. (Britain dialectal) A light meal, particularly in the afternoon. [17^thc.]

• (light meal): snack

• andersmeat, half undern, high undern, undermeal, undern-bell, undern-song, underntide, undertide, whole undern

• "undern, n.", in the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

• dunner, end run, runned

From Proto-Germanic *undurniz (“interval”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁n̥ter, *h₁enter (“between”). Influenced in sense by Latin tertia. Cognate with Old Norse undorn.

• IPA^(key): /ˈundern/

undern m

1. Terce, the third hour of the day (around 9 am)
2. (in some later use) Midday, the sixth hour of the day (12 pm).
3. (in compounds) Morning generally.

• (third hour): undernmæl, underntid, underntima
• (sixth hour): See middæg

• stunda, tid

• underngereord, underngifl, undernmete, undernrest, undernsang, undernswæsendu

• Middle English: ondern, undern
  • English: undern

• "undern" in Bosworth & Toller's Anglo-Saxon Dictionary (1882), Oxford: Clarendon Press.