midsummer

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English midsomer, also midsumer and missomer,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English midsumor,^[5][6][7][8] a compound of midd (“middle”) and sumor (“summer”), the ancestors of mid and summer.^[5][6][3][9] Old English first used the phrase middum sumere (“in the middle of summer”), in Alfred's translation of Bede, before 899, and the compound only about 1050;^[6] it also had a parallel compound middansumor.^[10] The OED compares Old Frisian midsumer, Middle Dutch midsōmer, Middle Low German mitsōmer, Middle High German mittesumer, German Mittsommer, Old Norse miðsumar, Swedish midsommar and Danish midsommer, and thinks that the compound was probably formed separately in each Germanic language, like midday, midnight and midwinter.^[10][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The middle of summer, the time of the summer solstice: recorded in Old English, in the Chronicle for 1052 and in a law on Rome-scot.^[8][10] A note in Old English explains that the solstice, solstitium in Latin, is called midsumor in English.^[8] Barnhart's first Middle English record is midde sumeran in 1101.^[11][6]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the word meant both the period around the summer solstice and the feast of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist on 24 June, one of the four quarter days of the year.^[2][5] Etymonline notes that astronomically midsummer falls on 21 June, while northern Europe traditionally reckoned it on the night of 23–24 June, a night of superstitious customs and wild festivities.^[5] Johnson (1755) defined it as the summer solstice, popularly placed on 24 June.^[12] An obsolete phrase, to have but a mile to midsummer, meant to be somewhat mad, an idea still present in midsummer madness.^[10] In dialect, Midsummer-come-never was a season that never arrives, and in north Lincolnshire the village feasts held about midsummer were themselves called midsummers;^[13] English dialects also named plants and insects after it, such as Midsummer-men for orpine, used in love divination on Midsummer Eve.^[13]

Timeline

• before 899 – Old English phrase middum sumere, in midsummer.^[6]
• c. 1050 – Old English compound midsumor.^[6][8]
• 1101 – Middle English midde sumeran.^[6]
• before 1500 – to have but a mile to midsummer, to be somewhat mad (obsolete).^[10]
• 1755 – Johnson defines it as the summer solstice, popularly reckoned on 24 June.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. The middle of summer; the period around the summer solstice, about 21 June in the northern hemisphere.^[3][14][10]
2. Midsummer Day, 24 June, the feast of Saint John the Baptist.^[10][2]
3. (attributive) Happening in or belonging to the middle of summer: a midsummer fair.^[14][9]

Word family

• midsummery
• Midsummer Day
• Midsummer Eve
• midsummer madness

Related words

• mid
• summer
• midwinter
• midnight
• midday

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
9. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d e f g Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
12. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
14. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins