ˈyear-day
Forms: see year1 and day; also year's day (yeeres dai, etc.).
[In OE. ᵹéares dæᵹ = OFris. ierisdei, MDu. jaersdagh, OHG. jâr(s)tac (MHG. jarstag, G. jahrstag).]
† 1. (year's day.) The first day of the year, New Year's Day. Obs. (Cf. F. jour de l'an.)
| a 1122 O.E. Chron. (Laud MS.) an. 1096 To ᵹeares dæᵹe. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) IV. 275 [Christ] hadde of þe firste ȝere of his burþe but sevene dayes from þe nativite to ȝeresday. |
2. A day observed every year in commemoration of a person or event, an anniversary; esp. a day on which requiem services were held every year in commemoration of a deceased person: cf. obit 2 b and year's mind. Obs. exc. Hist.
| 1390 Gower Conf. II. 171 To every godd..Thei made a temple forth withal, And ech of hem his yeeres dai Attitled hadde. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 537/2 Ȝerday, anniversarius. 1448 in Eng. Gilds (1870) 281 We haue ordeyned..for to kepe the ȝereday of Jon lyster of Cambryge ȝerely. c 1450 in Aungier Syon (1840) 275 How be it the fyrst dirige may be differred,..ȝet the xxxti day and ȝeres day schal neuer be differed. 1526 Lincoln Wills (1914) I. 179 That the sayd feoffers..yerely kepe up the aforsayd tyme my yereday for my soule. 1579–80 North Plutarch (1595) 584 The very daies on the which the women celebrated the feast and yeareday of Adonis death. |
3. pl. Days of the year.
| 1897–8 Ann. Rep. Bur. Amer. Ethnol. p. xliii. (Cent. Dict. Suppl.) A simple observation on the setting sun behind a distant sierra, which would in itself permit a count of year-days, if not the recognition of the bissextile. |