ˈaltar-cloth
[altar- 3.]
prop. The linen cloth used at the Communion or the Mass; but frequently applied to the silk frontal and super-frontal.
| c 1200 Trin. Coll. Hom. 163 His alter cloð is great and sole. c 1440 Lay-Folks Mass-Bk., B.P. iii. (1879) 71 Awterclath or towel, or any other anourment. a 1500 Nominale in Wright Voc. 231/1 Hoc lurthium, a nawtyr-cloth. 1522 in Bury Wills 117, I bequethe to Fryers of Babbewell an aughter clothe of diaper. 1641 Milton Ch. Discip. ii. (1851) 47 Rich Coaps, gorgeous Altar-clothes. 1856 R. A. Vaughan Hours w. Myst. (ed. 2) I. 222 He covers his table with an ‘altar-cloth.’ |