bedtime

Etymology

It is a compound from English bed + time,^[2][3][4][5] recorded in Middle English as bed-time.^[6][2] The OED compares the isolated Old English beddtīd, formed with tīd, the ancestor of tide.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The time at which a person goes to bed: about 1275, in The Owl and the Nightingale.^[2][6] Etymonline dates it to the early 13th century, as "the usual hour of going to rest".^[3]

Semantic evolution

The meaning has barely changed:^[2][3] Johnson (1755) defined it as "the hour of rest; sleeping time", quoting Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream on the long hours "between our after-supper and bedtime".^[7] The OED now notes a specific use, often with a possessive, for the hour at which someone, especially a child, regularly goes to bed,^[2] and the bedtime story told to a child is recorded from 1867.^[3][4]

Timeline

• c. 1275 – the time of going to bed, in The Owl and the Nightingale.^[2]
• 1867 – bedtime story.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The time at which someone usually goes to bed, especially a child: It's past your bedtime.^[8][5][2]
2. (as a modifier) Done or used at bedtime: a bedtime drink.^[8][4]

Word family

• bedtime story

Related words

• bed
• time
• tide

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Stratmann, Francis Henry (1891), A Middle-English Dictionary, revised by Henry Bradley, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
8. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins