Where does “midnight” come from?
Midnight comes from Old English midniht, combining mid- "middle" and niht "night," ultimately from Proto-Indo-European médʰyos and nahts meaning "middle" and "night."
midnight (English): The middle of the night: the sixth temporal hour,...
Definitions
- The middle of the night: the sixth temporal hour,...
Ancestry of “midnight”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | Middle English | midnight | — |
| 2 | Old English | midniht | midnight |
| 3 | Proto-Germanic | midjanahts | midnight |
| 4 | Proto-Germanic | midjaz | middle, mid |
| 5 | Proto-Indo-European | médʰyos | middle |
| 6 | Proto-Indo-European | medʰi- | with, among; with, along |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | me | in the middle of, near, by, around, with |
Words derived from “midnight”