5 thoughts on “undern”

1. In the Dutch language ‘onder’ has two meanings. [1] ‘below’, and [2] ‘among, between’, like in English ‘among equals’ (‘onder gelijken’).
   Could ‘undern’ have a meaning such as ‘between (midday and evening)’?

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2. Don’t know… Just looked at the etymology in the OED, which I’ll copy in below. (It’s listed as an obsolete/archaic word.)
   Etymology: Common Germanic: Old English undern, = Old Frisian unden, ond (older North Frisian undern; modern unnern-e, ünjern, onner-n, önner), Old Saxon undorn, undern (Middle Low German undern, Low German unden, unner; Middle Dutch onderen, -ern, -er, Dutch dialect onder), Old High German untarn, -orn, undorn (Middle High German undarn, -ern, German dialect undern, untern, unnern, onnern, etc.), Old Norse undorn, undarn (Norwegian dialect undonn, ondaan, undaal, etc., Swedish dialect undarn, -dun, Danish dialect unden, unnen), Gothic undaurn- (in undaurnimatsἄριστον); the relationships of the stem are doubtful. In all the Germanic languages the meaning shows a parallel development to that traceable in English; where the word survives it usually denotes either midday or afternoon or a meal taken at these times.

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3. Well, then it could be the time between sunrise and sunset.

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4. The Welsh version of “udern” is “anterth” which is obsolete in the sense of the terce, canonical third hour of the day after dawn etc. meaning now. Anterth is from Latin ante tertiam (horam) ‘before the 3rd hour’ and has parallels in Old Irish “anteirt” (the first daylight canonical hour) and modern Breton “endervez” (afternoon).

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   • Interesting!

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