Obs. rare. [prob. a use of the pl. of LOCK sb.2, a transl. of OF. closes Pentecoste, med.L. clausum Pentecostes, lit. ‘the close of Pentecost.’
For examples of the OFr. and med.L. terms see J. M. Manly in Harvard Studies Philol. & Lit., I. (1892), 88 ff. The main difficulty is that these terms appear, whenever their sense can be determined to mean the octave of Pentecost, or Trinity Sunday. Prof. Manly, however, points out that there is evidence that ‘Pentecost’ was sometimes used for the season beginning at Easter and closed by Whitsunday, so that the transference of the name ‘close of Pentecost’ from Trinity Sunday to Whitsunday, though lacking direct evidence, is not improbable. The use may have been merely local English; the Ayenbite and Shoreham both belong to Kent.]
Whitsunday. Also Lok-Sounday.
c. 1315. Shoreham, (E.E.T.S.), v. 289. Al here [sc. the Virgin’s] ioyen a lok-sounday.
1340. Ayenbite, 213. At lokes [Fr. a Penthecouste]. Ibid., 143, 263.
