hangover

Etymology

It is formed from English hang + over, as a noun use of the verb phrase.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} Dictionary.com marks it as an Americanism.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Something or someone left over; a remainder or survival: 1890, in a newspaper of St Joseph, Missouri;^[2] Merriam-Webster and Etymonline give 1894.^[4][6]

Semantic evolution

The sense of the unpleasant after-effects of drinking too much is recorded from 1895, in a Wisconsin newspaper,^[2] and Etymonline, which dates it by 1902 in American English, explains it as something left over from the night before.^[6] The OED notes that later uses of the general sense "a survival" are coloured by the drinking sense,^[2] and the word was extended to the after-effects of drugs and to a letdown after excitement.^[4][7]

Timeline

• 1890 – a remainder or survival, something left over.^[2]
• 1895 – the after-effects of drinking too much.^[2]
• 1902 – the drinking sense in American English (Etymonline).^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. The headache, nausea and other unpleasant effects that follow drinking too much alcohol: He woke with a dreadful hangover.^[4][8][7]
2. Similar after-effects of taking drugs.^[4][7]
3. A letdown after a time of great excitement or excess.^[4][7]
4. A custom, trait or thing that survives from the past; a holdover: The rule is a hangover from wartime.^[4][8][7]

Related words

• holdover
• leftover

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
8. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins