hibernation

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin hībernātiō (“the action of passing the winter”),^[2][3][4][5] a noun of action from hībernō (“to winter, spend the winter in winter quarters”),^[3][2][4] from hībernus (“of winter, wintry”),^[4][6][2] which is related to hiems (“winter”),^[3][4] from Proto-Indo-European *gheim- (“winter”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The action of passing the winter, of plants, insect eggs and the like: 1664, in John Evelyn's Kalendarium Hortense, according to Barnhart;^[4] Etymonline also dates it to the 1660s.^[3] The OED's first record of this sense is from Rycaut's continuation of Knolles's history of the Turks (1687–1700).^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word first meant wintering in general, especially in a sheltered place.^[2][5] The zoological sense, the dormant state in which many animals and plants spend the cold season, is recorded from 1816, in Kirby and Spence's Introduction to Entomology,^[2] and the figurative sense, any period of inactivity, from 1829, in a letter of C. Darwin.^[2] The verb hibernate is probably a back-formation from the noun: Etymonline dates it to 1802, and Barnhart finds it before 1802 in the writings of Erasmus Darwin.^[3][4]

Timeline

• 1664 – the action of passing the winter, especially in a sheltered place.^[4][2]
• 1816 – the dormant state of animals and plants in the cold season, especially the winter sleep of some mammals.^[2]
• 1829 – figurative, a period of dormancy or inactivity.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The dormant state of reduced metabolism in which many animals, and some plants, pass the winter: Bats lose much of their weight during hibernation.^[7][2][5]
2. The act of hibernating.^[7]
3. A period of inactivity or withdrawal from public life.^[7][2]
4. The action of passing the winter, especially in a suitable place.^[2][5]

Word family

• semihibernation

Related words

• hibernate
• hibernal

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster