hancred

Old English

FWOTD – 15 July 2017

Alternative forms

• hancrǣd

Etymology

hana (“rooster”) +‎ crēd

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈxɑnˌkreːd/, [ˈhɑnˌkreːd]

Noun

hancrēd m

1. (historical) the period of the early morning when roosters begin to crow; the wee hours of morning

Usage notes

In Bede and others, this terms refers to a particular period of night following midniht (midnight) and before the first light of dawn.

Hypernyms

• niht

References

• Joseph Bosworth and T. Northcote Toller (1898) “hancrēd”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• "Anglo-Saxon Manual of Astronomy", p. 6, in Popular Treatises on Science Written during the Middle Ages (1841), London: Historical Society of Science.