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THE ORIGIN OF THE WORD ''HONEYMOON'' The '' Oxford English Dictionary '' offers no Etymology at all, but dates the word back to the 16th century: One of the youngest citations in the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' indicates that, while today ''honeymoon'' has a positive meaning, the word was actually a cynical reference to the inevitable waning of love like a Phase Of The Moon . This, the first literary reference to the honeymoon was penned in 1552, in Richard Huloet's '' Abecedarium Anglico Latinum ''. Huleot writes: According to some sources, the honeymoon is a relic of marriage by capture, based on the practice of the husband going into hiding with his wife to avoid reprisals from her relatives, with the intention that the woman would be pregnant by the end of the month. It has also been said that the origins of this word date back to the times of Babylon. In order to increase the virility and fertility of the newly-weds, the father of the bride would provide his son in law with all the Mead (a honey-based drink) he could drink during the first month of the marriage. Given that the English word is only four hundred years old, direct attribution to Babylon is questionable, though often repeated.1 The custom of drinking mead after a wedding for a month was also a medieval custom, however, and in practice at the time the word first appeared. Other possible explanations of the word honeymoon have to do with the date that weddings traditionally took place. Weddings once commonly took place upon the Summer Solstice both for religious reasons earlier on and also for the practical reason that it was the time between the main planting and harvesting of crops. As it was at this time of year that honey was first harvested, it is possible that this is the source. In many parts of Europe it was traditional to supply a newly married couple with enough mead for a month, ensuring happiness and fertility. From this practice we get ''honeymoon'' or, as the French say, ''lune de miel''2, p.223, p.14 Satirists have said that a "Honeymoon salad" is "lettuce (let us) alone with no dressing". There are many Calque s of the word honeymoon from English into other languages. The Welsh word for honeymoon is ''mis mêl'' (honey month). In Arabic it is ''shahr el 'assal'' also translated to honey month. The Spanish word for honeymoon is ''la luna de miel'' (the moon of honey), and the Italian ''luna di miele'' (same translation). REFERENCES |
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