The last service of the day in the Roman Catholic Church. First appointed by the abbot Benedict in the sixth century. The word is a corruption of completoʹrium.
In ecclesiastical Latin vesperinus, from vesper, means evening service, and completinus is formed on the same model.
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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.