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moon

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /muːn/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English mone,[2][3] inherited from Old English mōna,[2][3] from Proto-Germanic *menon-,[2] the source also of Old Saxon and Old High German māno, Old Norse máni, Dutch maan, German Mond and Gothic mena.[2][3] It goes back to Proto-Indo-European *me(n)ses- (“moon, month”),[2] also the source of Sanskrit mās “moon, month”, Greek mḗnē “moon” and mḗn “month”, Latin mēnsis “month”, Lithuanian mėnesis “moon, month” and Old Irish mí “month”,[2][3][4] from the root *me- “to measure”, the moon's phases being an ancient measure of time.[2][5][6] It is related to month, measure and menstrual.[7][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earth's satellite: about 888 in the OED.[8] Old English mōna is recorded before 725.[3]

Semantic evolution

Mōna was a masculine noun in Old English; after grammatical gender was lost, the moon was spoken of as “she” from about 1290.[2][8] In Greek, Latin, Celtic and Armenian the cognate words now mean only “month”.[2] From about 1000 a moon was also a lunar month.[8] The belief that the moon is made of green cheese is proverbial from 1528,[8] the man in the moon is from the Middle Ages,[7] to cry for the moon from the mid-16th century and over the moon from the early 18th century, after the nursery rhyme in which the cow jumps over the moon.[7] The verb meant “to expose to moonlight” about 1600,[2] then “to idle about, wander or gaze moodily” (1836).[2][8] “To show the bare buttocks” is American student slang by 1968, from the noun moon “buttocks” (1756).[2][8]

Timeline

  • c. 888 – the earth's satellite.[8]
  • c. 1000 – a lunar month.[8]
  • c. 1290 – referred to as feminine.[8]
  • 1528 – the green-cheese proverb.[8]
  • c. 1600 – verb, to expose to moonlight.[2]
  • 1756 – the buttocks.[2]
  • 1836 – to idle about.[2][8]
  • 1968 – to show the bare buttocks.[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. The natural satellite of the Earth, shining by reflected sunlight.
  2. A natural satellite of another planet.
  3. The moon as it appears at a given time; a phase of it.
  4. A month, especially a lunar month.
  5. Something unattainable: promised them the moon.

Verb

  1. To pass time idly and aimlessly.
  2. To yearn or pine as if infatuated.
  3. (slang) To show one's bare buttocks as a prank or insult.

Word family

  • moonlike
  • mooner
  • moonless

Usage notes

Moon type, an embossed type for blind readers, is named after William Moon (1818–94), its inventor.[8][9]

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press