nightfall

Etymology

It is a compound from English night + fall, the noun fall meaning a coming down or onset.^[2][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record, in Cotgrave's French–English dictionary of 1611, is a rare sense, now obsolete: fruit that has fallen from a tree during the night.^[2] The modern sense, the onset of night, follows in 1612, in Shelton's translation of Don Quixote.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word has meant the coming of night since its second record, in 1612;^[2] the Cotgrave sense of fruit fallen overnight was not used again.^[2] Etymonline and Merriam-Webster date the word only to 1700,^[3][5] while Dictionary.com dates it to 1605–15.^[4]

Timeline

• 1611 – fruit fallen from a tree during the night (obsolete).^[2]
• 1612 – the onset of night, dusk.^[2] Etymonline and Merriam-Webster date it to 1700.^[3][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The coming of night at the end of the day; dusk: We reached the farm before nightfall.^[6][5][2]

Related words

• night
• fall

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins