All Souls' Dayn.

Etymology: < all adj. + the genitive plural of soul n. (see note) + day n. Compare post-classical Latin dies animarum day of souls (from 12th cent. in British sources), festivitas animarum feast of souls (12th cent. in a British source), commemoratio omnium animarum commemoration of all souls (14th cent. in a British source), festus commemorationis animarum feast of commemoration of souls (14th cent. in a British source), dies fidelium animarum day of faithful souls, dies commemorationis animarum omnium fidelium day of commemoration of all faithful souls (both 13th cent. in a continental source; the modern official term in Catholic use is commemoratio omnium fidelium defunctorum ‘commemoration of all the faithful departed’). Compare also Dutch allerzielendag (1567), German Allerseelentag (early 15th cent. as aller selan tag ; > Swedish alla själars dag (from early modern Swedish), Danish allesjælesdag (from early modern Danish)), and also Middle Low German allercristensēlenfest , allersēlenfest . Compare Soul-mass Day n. at soul mass n. Compounds, and earlier All Hallows' Day n. at All-Hallows n. Compounds 1.History of the Festival. The festival developed out of the monastic custom of holding a commemoration of the souls of the dead members of a religious order; the observance of such a commemoration is attested for Benedictine monasteries in the 6th cent., and in Spain in the 7th cent. In 998 the Benedictine abbot Odilo of Cluny (d. 1049) made the annual commemoration obligatory in the houses of his congregation, and also fixed its date (on the day immediately following All Saints' Day). The influence of the Cluniacs in Western monasticism helped to spread the festival throughout the Western Church. In secular dioceses, it was apparently first celebrated a1008 in the diocese of Liège; in Rome, it is recorded from the 14th cent. In England it was apparently only introduced after the Norman Conquest. Form history. The α. forms show the weak genitive plural of soul n. (perhaps occasionally also the weak nominative plural). Compare the discussion of Middle English genitive (plural) compounds in sawlene , etc. at that entry. The β. forms probably show phonological reduction of α. forms, although they could alternatively be taken as showing all adj. + (uninflected) soul n. The γ. forms show substitution of plural forms in -s (probably usually to be taken as genitive plural) in the second element.