Eccl. [L. fēria holiday (see FAIR sb.), in late L. used with prefixed ordinal for ‘day of the week’; thus secunda feria = Monday; but Sunday (Dominicus, Dominica) and Saturday (Sabbatum) were usually spoken of by their names.
In Portuguese segunda, terça, etc. feira are still the current names of the days of the week.]
A day of the week; a weekday, esp. an ordinary weekday as opposed to a festival. Greater feria: a particular day of a certain week, that has an office or commemoration proper to it, as Ash Wednesday, Monday in Rogation Week, etc.
1853. Cdl. Wiseman, Ess., III. 76, note. The Sundays and ferias of Lent and Advent.
1866. F. G. Lee, Direct. Angl. (ed. 3), 354. Feria, a week day on which no holiday falls.
1883. Black, in Encycl. Brit. (ed. 9), XVI. 510/2, ‘Missal.’ It [the Roman missal] contains the proper introit, collect … for the festivals and ferias connected with the ecclesiastical seasons.
