Noah Webster
Offertory
OF'FERTORY, noun The act of offering, or the thing offered. [Little Used.]
1. offertory was properly an anthem chanted or a voluntary played on the organ during the offering and a part of the mass, in the Catholic church; but since the reformation it denotes certain sentences in the communion-office, read while the alms are collecting.
2. Anciently, the linen on which the offering was laid.