NOCTURN • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Nocturn

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noun

Nocturn n.

An office of devotion, or act of religious service, by night.

One of the portions into which the Psalter was divided, each consisting of nine psalms, designed to be used at a night service.

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Etymology of 'Nocturn'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Nocturn" Quotes from Famous Books

... him soon discovered that their condemnation was too sweeping, as most were willing to admit after they had read, for instance, When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd, a poem that Swinburne called "the most sonorous nocturn yet chanted in the church of the world." The three motifs of this song are the lilac, the evening star, ...

— History of American Literature • Reuben Post Halleck

... classes (twelve in all); e.g. apostles, martyrs, confessors, virgins, and the Blessed Virgin Mary. These offices are of very ancient date, and many of them were probably [v.04 p.0505] in origin proper to individual saints. They contain passages of great literary beauty. The lessons read at the third nocturn are patristic homilies on the Gospels, and together form a rough summary ...

— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 3 - "Brescia" to "Bulgaria" • Various