Now Hist. or dial. Also 5–6 Sc. sawle mess, saul(e) mes(se, etc., 6 north. sall messe, sawmos, 9 sawmas, saumas, etc.; 5 sowlemas(se, 8 solmus, 9 soulmas(s. [f. SOUL sb. + MASS sb.1 Cf. MDu. siel-, zielmisse (Du. zielmis), MLG. sêlemisse, MHG. sêl(e)messe (G. seel-, seelenmesse), ON. sálumessa, Sw. själamessa, Da. sjælemesse.]
1. A mass for the soul of a dead person.
In early use Sc. and north.
1488. Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., I. 89. To the King to offir at the Qwenis sawle mess. Ibid. (1496), 278. To the Kingis offerand at the Kingis saulmes.
1537. Registr. Aberdon. (Maitland), I. 414. To þe viccaris of þe queir … ȝeirlie in þe day of his decese for derege and sawllmess.
a. 1578. Lindesay (Pitscottie), Chron. Scot. (S.T.S.), I. 369. All thair great blythnes and ioy of hir comming … war all turnit in saul messes and deriegies.
1675. Brooks, Gold. Key, Wks. 1867, V. 216. The papists … who … for the obtaining of pardon, &c., have appointed penances and pilgrimages, and self-scourgings and soul-masses.
1681. Burnet, Hist. Ref., II. 25. The use and lawfulness of soul-masses and obits.
1828. Scott, F. M. Perth, xxx. Bid the grey monk his soul mass mutter.
1853. Rock, Ch. of Fathers, IV. xii. 176. The mass for the dead or soul-mass, as our fathers called it, had ritual peculiarities.
2. Soul-mass Day, All Souls’ Day, 2 Nov. Also ellipt. Now dial.
c. 1450. Mirk’s Festial, 269. Þe morow aftyr All-halow-day ys euermor Sowlemasse-day.
1461. Paston Lett., II. 64. Wretyn in hast, on Sowlemas Daye.
1533. Test. Ebor. (Surtees), V. 262. To poor people of All-halowe day and Sawmos day.
1876. Robinson, Mid-Yks. Gloss., Saumas,… the feast of All Souls, November 2.
3. attrib. In a number of dial. uses, as Soul-mass cake, -loaf (see quots.); Soul-mass hiring, a hiring-fair held on or about All Souls’ Day.
1661. Blount, Glossogr. (ed. 2), Soul-masse-Cakes, are certain oaten cakes, which some of the wealthier sort of persons in Lancashire [1674 adds Herefordshire, &c.] use still to give the poor on All-Souls day.
a. 1800. Pegge, Suppl. Grose, Solmus-loaf, bread given away on All Souls day. North.
1817. G. Young, Hist. Whitby, II. 882. A lady in Whitby has a soul mass loaf about 100 years old.
1837. Thornber, Hist. Blackpool, 92. The beggar at the door craving an awmas, or saumas cake, (soulmass cake).
1884. Leeds Mercury, 7 Nov., 3/6. The Ripon Soulmas hirings were held yesterday.
Hence † Soul-massing vbl. sb., the action or practice of saying masses for the dead. Obs.–1
c. 1555. ? Bradford, Carrying Christ’s Cross, vii. 90. So doeth it cast down al their soule massing and foolish foundacions for such, as be dead.
