undern
undern noun: synonym of terce: the third hour of daylight (about 9 am).
Noun
undern (uncountable)
- Synonym of terce: the third hour of daylight (about 9 am).
- ...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 sene1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “ij”, in Le Morte Darthur, book XI
- Synonyms:
- terce
- ...wete yow wel that sir launcelot was glad and soo was that lady Elayne
- Synonym of noon: the sixth hour of daylight (12 pm).
- Synonym of afternoon.
- Synonym of evening.
- A light meal, particularly in the afternoon.
- Synonyms:
- snack
Synonyms of undern
Forms of undern
| alternative form | underne |
|---|---|
| alternative form | undirn |
Origin of undern
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.
Words formed from undern
Questions about undern
- What does undern mean?
- Undern means synonym of terce: the third hour of daylight (about 9 am).
- What part of speech is undern?
- Undern is a noun.
Words near undern in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: undern (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “undern.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/undern. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.