matinee

Etymology

It is borrowed from French matinée (“morning; what fills a morning”),^[2][3][4][5] first used in English in the French phrase matinée musicale.^[4][3] The French noun, recorded in Old French from the 12th century as matinee, is formed from matin (“morning”) and the suffix -ee;^[2][6] Etymonline and Barnhart derive it from matines, the source of matins.^[3][4] Merriam-Webster traces matin to Latin mātūtīnum, the neuter of mātūtīnus (“of the morning”), from Mātūta, the goddess of the morning.^[6] The OED notes an isolated Middle English borrowing of the Old French word, matyne in the “Laud Troy-book” (about 1400).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

An entertainment held in the morning, or in later use any time before evening: 1848, in the Musical World;^[2] Barnhart finds matinée musicale the same year, in Thackeray's Vanity Fair.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The afternoon sense came from French usage: Littré noted that in large towns matinée covered the day up to the dinner hour, six or seven in the evening, so a matinée could be an afternoon entertainment.^[2] French itself used the word for a morning entertainment from 1873, and by 1931 Larousse observed that it was more often held in the afternoon.^[2] The Oxford dictionaries explain that such performances were formerly also given in the morning.^[7][8] The word was at first treated as French in English and lost its foreignness by the late 19th century.^[3] It was used attributively from 1895 (matinée actor),^[4] and matinee idol, a handsome actor popular with women, who were thought to be free in the afternoons, is recorded from 1902.^[4] From 1851 a matinee was also a woman's jacket or wrap for morning wear.^[2] American slang has used it since 1884 for an afternoon meeting, especially a sexual liaison.^[2][9]

Timeline

• 1848 – a daytime entertainment, at first in matinée musicale.^[2][4]
• 1851 – a woman's jacket or wrap for morning wear.^[2]
• 1884 – an afternoon meeting, especially a sexual liaison.^[2]
• 1895 – attributive, in matinée actor.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A performance of a play, film, concert or the like held in the daytime, usually the afternoon: We got cheaper tickets for the Sunday matinee.^[10][6][2]
2. A woman's dressing gown or light jacket.^[6][2][5]
3. (slang) A sexual meeting in the afternoon.^[2][9]
4. A harness race with no entry fee in which the prizes are trophies, not money.^[6]

Word family

• matinee idol

Related words

• matins
• matin
• journey

Usage notes

It is also written with the French accent, matinée, which British dictionaries give as the main spelling.^[10][5][6]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
10. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins