Sarum

views updated Jun 11 2018

Sarum an old name for the southern cathedral city of Salisbury, still used as the name of its diocese; in particular, denoting the order of divine service used before the Reformation in the diocese of Salisbury and, by the 15th century, in most of England, Wales, and Ireland. Sarum comes from medieval Latin, perhaps from an abbreviated form of Latin Sarisburia ‘Salisbury’. (See also Old Sarum.)