NOTES.
ETYMOLOGY OF "WHITSUNTIDE" AND "MASS".
Perhaps the following Note and Query on the much-disputed origin of the word Whitsunday, as used in our Liturgy, may find a place in your Journal. None of the etymologies of this word at present in vogue is at all satisfactory. They are—
I. White Sunday: and this, either—
1. From the garments of white linen, in which those who were at that season admitted to the rite of holy baptism were clothed; (as typical of the spiritual purity therein obtained:) or,—
2. From the glorious light of heaven, sent down from the father of Lights on the day of Pentecost: and "those vast diffusions of light and knowledge, which were then shed upon the Apostles, in order to the enlightening of the world." (Wheatley.) Or,—
3. From the custom of the rich bestowing on this day all the milk of their kine, then called white meat, on the poor. (Wheatley, from Gerard Langbain.)
II. Huict Sunday: from the French, huit, eight; i.e. the eighth Sunday from Easter. (L'Estrange, Alliance Div. Off.)
III. There are others who see that neither of these explanations can stand; because the ancient mode of spelling the word was not Whit-sunday, but Wit-sonday (as in Wickliff), or Wite-sonday (which is as old as Robert of Gloucester, c. A.D. 1270). Hence,—