chirche

chirche (countable and uncountable, plural chirches)

1. Obsolete spelling of church.
   • 1509 December 24 (Gregorian calendar), [Sebastian Brant], translated by Alexander Barclay, “Of the Claterynge and Bablynge of Prestis and Clerkes in the Quere”, in […] The Shyp of Folys of the Worlde […], London: […] Rycharde Pynson […], →OCLC, folio CLXXXXIIII, recto; republished as The Shyp of Folys (The English Experience […]; 229), Amsterdam: Theatrum Orbis Terrarum; New York, N.Y.: Da Capo Press, 1970, →ISBN:

     I thynke it better moꝛe mete and pꝛofytable / To ſtande afarre without the Chirche and quere / Than there to be ⸝ and ſo to that bable / That foꝛ thy noyſe none can the ſeruyce here […]

• cherch, cherche, chirch, chorche, church, churche, chyrch, chyrche, kirke, kyrk, kyrke, schyrsche
• chireche, chiriche, circe, cyrce (Early Middle English)

From Old English ċiriċe,^[1] from Proto-West Germanic *kirikā, borrowed from Ancient Greek κυριακόν (kuriakón).

• IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃirt͡ʃ(ə)/, /ˈt͡ʃɛrt͡ʃ(ə)/, (Southern, Southwest Midland) /ˈt͡ʃurt͡ʃ(ə)/^[2]
• IPA^(key): /kirk/ (Northern)

chirche (plural chirches or chirchen)

1. church, cathedral
   • p. 1154, “AD 1137”, in Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (MS. Laud Misc. 636, continuation), Peterborough, folio 89, verso; republished at Oxford: Digital Bodleian, 8 February 2018:

     Foꝛ ouer ſithon ne · foꝛ baren. hi nouther circe ne cyrceiard. oc namen al þe god ð þar inne ƿaſ. ⁊ brenden ſythen þe cyrce ⁊ al te gædere.

     Because after a while, they spared neither churches or churchyards, but stole all the valuables within them before burning the church and everything in it.

2. temple, synagogue
3. clergy, priests
4. religious organisation or community
5. Christendom, the whole of Christianity
6. The Roman Catholic Church
7. A regional branch of Christianity

• parische chirche

• English: church
• Geordie: chorch, kirk
• Scots: kirk
• Yola: chourch