Where does “tonight” come from?
Tonight comes from Middle English tonyght, from Old English tō niht, literally meaning "to night."
tonight (English): During the night following the current day; Last...
Definitions
- During the night following the current day; Last...
Ancestry of “tonight”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | Middle English | tonyght | On the currently occurring night; On the night... |
| 2 | Old English | tō niht | — |
| 3 | Old English | tō | at, on; furthermore, also, besides; to, into |
| 4 | Proto-West Germanic | *tō | — |
| 5 | Proto-Germanic | tō | to |
| 6 | Proto-Indo-European | de | Emphatic or contrastive particle, and, but;... |
Words derived from “tonight”