ascensiontide means the period from Ascension Day (39 days after Easter) until Whitsunday (49 days after Easter).
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, ascensiontide ranks #325 of 12,955 for Most Exacting Words, #2,851 of 12,955 for Most Whimsical Words, #7,811 of 12,953 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound, #7,813 of 12,956 for Most Ingenious Words.
Why “ascensiontide” is a great word
Ascensiontide is the liturgical period beginning on Ascension Day and ending on the eve of Pentecost. Formed within English by compounding: from Ascension (referring to the feast of Christ's ascension) and -tide (denoting a period or season). Unlike Eastertide, which names the entire fifty-day paschal jubilee, or Pentecost, which is the climactic feast itself, Ascensiontide is the suspended, final decade of waiting. It is the forty-day mark passed, the empty space between a footprint on a mountaintop and a rush of wind in an upper room—a quiet, upward gaze into an empty sky that slowly fills with the promise of fire.
Etymology
From Ascension + -tide.
noun
- The period from Ascension Day (39 days after Easter) until Whitsunday (49 days after Easter).
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