Etymologically
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tonight

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /təˈnaɪt/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English to night,[2][3] inherited from Old English tō niht (“at night; on the night following”),[2][4][3] from Old English tō (“at, on”) + niht (“night”),[3][2][5] the dative of niht.[3] It is formed like today and tomorrow.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old English tōniht, “on the night following this day”, is from about 1000.[3][7] “On this very night”, the night now present, is from before 1300, in Cursor Mundi (before 1325).[7][3]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the word could also mean “last night”, a sense recorded from about 1205 and now obsolete except in dialect.[7] As a noun, “this night”, it is from the early 14th century.[4][3] It was regularly written as two words until the 18th century, then with a hyphen as to-night until the early 20th century.[4][3]

Timeline

  • c. 1000 – on the night following this day.[3][7]
  • c. 1205 – last night (obsolete).[7]
  • before 1325 – on this very night; noun, this night.[3]
  • 18th century – written to-night.[4]
  • early 20th century – written tonight.[4][3]

Modern meaning

Adverb

  1. On or during the present or coming night.

Noun

  1. This night, or the night after this day.

Usage notes

The spelling tonite is an informal variant.[8]

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 The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press