vespers

The story

1. Late Latin · derived fromvesperus“evening”
2. Ecclesiastical Latin · derived fromvesperae“vespers”
3. Old French · derived fromvespres
4. Middle English · inherited fromvespers
5. English todayvespers

From Middle English vespers, from Old French vespres (French vêpres), from Ecclesiastical Latin vesperae (“vespers”), substantivisation of relational Late Latin vesperus (“evening”), from vesper (“evening”) + -us. Euphemistic use first as Vèpres éphésiennes (“Ephesian Vespers”), coined in 1890 by historian Théodore Reinach by analogy with the Sicilian Vespers.