Sarum

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Relating to the distinctive form of the Latin liturgy that developed and was used in Salisbury Cathedral and its diocese during the Middle Ages
2. Of or pertaining to the particular ecclesiastical rite and religious practices that originated from Salisbury Cathedral in medieval England
3. Denoting the special liturgical traditions and ceremonial practices associated with Salisbury Cathedral in the medieval period

Etymology: The name "Sarum" is a scribal accident. Medieval writers abbreviated the town's name, Middle English "Sarisberie" (the spelling recorded in the Domesday Book), with a mark over a letter, written as "Sar̅" or "Saꝝ". That mark normally stood for the Latin ending "-rum," so a scribe reading it would expand the abbreviation as "Sarum" rather than as the English-style name it actually abbreviated. The mistake spread. By the 13th century some writers had taken "Sarum" to be the true name, and by the 14th century the bishop Robert Wyvil was styling himself "episcopus Sarum." The Latin form therefore grew out of a misread abbreviation, and it became the official-sounding title for the see and its diocese.