midnight English · revision 6087

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=compound|attested=before 900}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /ˈmɪd.naɪt/^(Roach et al. 2011)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is Middle English mid-niht, midnight, [[inh|ang|midniht]], also middre niht, with the dative of the adjective,^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline)^(MWU 2024) [[af|ang|midd|niht|t1=middle|t2=night]] (see [[mid]] and [[night]]).^(MWU 2024)^(Etymonline)^(NODE 1998) Compare [[goh|mittinaht]], [[dum|midnacht]] and German [[m|de|Mitternacht]].^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ The middle of the night, 12 o'clock at night: Old English mid-niht, middeneaht before 899, in Alfred's translation of Bede's ''Ecclesiastical History''.^(Barnhart 1988)^(OED 1989)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ In Middle English it is mid-niht in Layamon's ''Brut'' (probably before 1200) and mydnyght in Chaucer's ''Canterbury Tales'' (about 1385).^(Barnhart 1988) As an adjective, occurring at midnight, it is from 1390,^(OED 1989) and as dark as midnight from 1601.^(OED 1989) Figurative intense darkness or gloom, or a period of it, is from 1593.^(OED 1989)^(SOED 2002) ''Midnight oil'', standing for late-night work, as in ''burning the midnight oil'', is from the 1630s.^(Etymonline)^(Collins 2023) Mother midnight was 17th-century slang for a midwife or bawd, now obsolete,^(OED 1989) and in Nottinghamshire dialect ''midnight'' was a contemptuous name for someone slow or behindhand with their work.^(Wright 1898)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * before 899 – Old English mid-niht, in Alfred's Bede.^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * c. 1385 – mydnyght, in Chaucer.^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * 1390 – as an adjective.^(OED 1989)

+ * 1593 – intense darkness, gloom.^(OED 1989)

+ * 1630s – midnight oil.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Noun===

+ # The middle of the night; twelve o'clock at night.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # Deep [[darkness]] or [[gloom]], or a period of it.^(AHD)^(SOED 2002)

+

+ ===Adjective===

+ # Happening or done at midnight: ''the midnight hour''.^(Collins 2023)^(SOED 2002)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[midnightly]]

+ * [[premidnight]]

+ * [[postmidnight]]

+ * [[midnight blue]]

+ * [[midnight sun]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[mid]]

+ * [[night]]

+ * [[midday]]

+ * [[midst]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}