Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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| a stew of meat, vegetables, potatoes, etc. |
| a chattering or flighty, light-headed person. |
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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responsory
plainchant melody and text originally sung responsorially-i.e., by alternating choir and soloist or soloists. Responsorial singing of the psalms was adopted into early Christian worship from Jewish liturgical practice. Most frequently the congregation sang a short refrain, such as Amen or Alleluia, between psalm verses sung by a cantor. As medieval plainchant developed, more elaborate refrains (R) were sung by a choir alternating with soloists singing psalm verses (V), producing a musical form R V1 R V2R. The responsory, or refrain, was frequently abbreviated on its repetition. Its text usually related to the meaning of the feast day or the content of the psalm. Only a few such chants survive in this long form, which is now normally curtailed.
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