Link Centre Dictionary

honeymoon

ho·ney·moon

UK/ˈhʌn.iˌmuːn/ US/ˈhʌniˌmun/ common
verb (1) noun (2)

verb

1.

spend a holiday after one''s marriage

  • “they plan to honeymoon in Hawai”

noun

1.
2.

Origin

From earlier hony moone, originally denoting the period of time following a wedding, equivalent to honey + moon. The original reference was to affection waning like the moon, but later the sense became "the first month, or moon after marriage", which tends to be the sweetest. Compare Middle Low German suckermânt (“honeymoon”, literally “sugar-month”), German Low German Hönnigweken (“honeymoon”, literally “honey-weeks”). The German Honigmond (literally “honey-moon”) is a calque of French lune de miel, itself a calque of the English term.

Phrases

  • Florida honeymoon
  • honeymoon fly
  • Honeymoon Island
  • honeymoon palsy
  • honeymoon period
  • honeymoon whist

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.