Thursday, June 02, 2011

Word of the day: novena

The word of the day is novena:


< post-classical Latin novena (early 14th cent.; use as noun of feminine singular of classical Latin novēnusnovene adj.), perhaps via Italian novena (a1685).
  A devotion consisting of special prayers or services on nine successive days, or on the same day for nine successive weeks. (OED)



"Then the gash down the plane of the east

by an abrupting left-handed mountain
not there yesterday

(called Mount Was,
ecclesiastically white,

a master's watercolor of novena candles)"

 - J. T. Barbarese, "There and not there", 30 May 2011 The New Yorker

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