winter

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˈwɪn.tə/, US /ˈwɪn.t̬ɚ/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English winter,^[2] inherited from Old English winter,^[3][4] from Proto-Germanic *wintruz,^[3][4] which is of uncertain origin.^[3] Barnhart, Hoad and Word Origins derive it from a nasalized form of Proto-Indo-European *wed- (“to be wet”), the root of wet and water, so that winter would be “the wet season”.^[4][5][6] Boutkan, cited by Etymonline, considers two other old proposals possible: the root of wind, “the windy season”, or a cognate of Gaulish vindo- and Old Irish find “white”, “the white season”.^[3] The usual Proto-Indo-European word for the season was Proto-Indo-European *gheim-.^[3] It is cognate with Old Frisian winter, Old Saxon and Old High German wintar, German Winter, Old Norse vetr and Gothic wintrus.^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The fourth and coldest season of the year: Old English, about 725 in Beowulf,^[4] with the OED's first example from about 888.^[7] Old English winter also meant a year.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The Anglo-Saxons counted years in winters, as in anwintre “one year old”,^[3] and the use of winters for years of age survived (before 900 in the OED).^[7] As an adjective, “of winter”, it goes back to Old English, and of crops that stand through the winter, as winter wheat, to the late 14th century.^[3] Figuratively, a time of old age or affliction is from 1590.^[7] Shakespeare's “Now is the winter of our discontent” in Richard III gave the British name winter of discontent for the strikes of 1978–79.^[6] The verb, “to pass the winter”, is from 1382, in the Wycliffe Bible,^[4][7] at first translating Latin hiemāre and hībernāre.^[8] Wintry is from 1590, in Spenser's Faerie Queene, a new formation, though Old English had wintrig.^[4] Winterize is from 1934.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 725 – Old English winter, the season; a year.^[4]
• late 14th century – of crops sown before winter.^[3]
• 1382 – verb, to spend the winter.^[4][7]
• 1590 – figurative, old age or affliction.^[7]
• 1590 – wintry.^[4]
• 1934 – winterize.^[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The coldest season of the year, between autumn and spring; in the northern hemisphere usually December, January and February.
2. (literary) A year, especially of a person's age: a man of seventy winters.
3. A time of decline, hardship or old age.

Verb

1. To spend the winter in a place.
2. To keep or feed animals or plants during the winter.

Adjective

1. Of, for or happening in winter.
2. Of a crop, sown in autumn and harvested the next spring or summer: winter wheat.

Word family

• winterish
• winterer
• winterishly
• winterless
• overwinter

Related words

• wintry
• wet
• water
• wind
• hibernate
• summer

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f 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