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Origin and history of dawn

dawn(v.)

c. 1200, dauen, "to become day, grow light in the morning," shortened or back-formed from dauinge, dauing "period between darkness and sunrise," (c. 1200), from Old English dagung, from dagian "to become day," from Proto-Germanic *dagaz "day" (source also of German tagen "to dawn"), from PIE root *agh- "a day." Probably influenced by Scandinavian cognates (Danish dagning, Old Norse dagan "a dawning"). Related: Dawned; dawning.

Figurative sense "begin to develop" is from 1717. Of ideas, etc., "begin to become apparent or evident to the mind," by 1852.

also from c. 1200

dawn(n.)

1590s, "first appearance of daylight in the morning," from dawn (v.). Middle English words for "first appearance of light in the morning" were day-gleam (late 14c.), dayspring (c. 1300), and dawning. Dawn (n.) in the figurative sense of "first opening or expansion of anything" is from 1630s. As a fem. proper name, little used in U.S. before 1920 but a top 25 name for girls born 1966-1975.

also from 1590s

Entries linking to dawn

dawning(n.)

"first appearance of light in the morning," late 13c., verbal noun from dawn (v.). It superseded Middle English dauing, dawing, dayinge, from Old English dagung.

pre-dawn(adj.)

"of or occurring before the dawn of day," 1940, from pre- + dawn (n.).

*agh-

Proto-Indo-European root meaning "a day" (as a unit of time). The initial d- in Germanic is of obscure origin.

It might form all or part of: adays; Bundestag; daily; daisy; dawn; day; holiday; Reichstag; today.

It might also be the source of: Sanskrit dah "to burn," Lithuanian dagas "hot season," Old Prussian dagis "summer."

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Trends of dawn

adapted from books.google.com/ngrams/ with a 7-year moving average; ngrams are probably unreliable.

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sunset

"apparent descent of the sun below the horizon in evening," late 14c., from sun (n.) + set (v.). Perhaps a shortening of sun-setting, or perhaps taken from a Middle English subjunctive such as before the sun set. Old English had sunnansetlgong "sunset," while sunset meant "west."

morning

"first part of the day" (technically from midnight to noon), late 14c., a contraction of mid-13c. morwenynge, moregeninge, from morn, morewen (see morn) + suffix -ing, on pattern of evening. Originally the time just before sunrise. As an adjective from 1530s; as a greeting by 184

austral

"towards the dawn," from PIE *heus-tero- (source also of Sanskrit usra- "red; matutinal," usar-budh- "waking at dawn;" Greek...aurion "tomorrow;" Lithuanian aušra "dawn;" Old Church Slavonic jutro "dawn, morning; tomorrow;" Old High German ostara..."Easter"), from PIE root *aus- (1) "to shine," especially of the dawn....

matins

originally matutinas vigilias "morning watches," from Latin matutinus "of or in the morning," associated with Matuta, Roman dawn...

east

High German ostan, German Ost, Old Norse austr "from the east"), from PIE root *aus- (1) "to shine," especially of the dawn...The east is the direction in which dawn breaks. For theory of shift in the geographical sense in Latin, see austral....

Austria

from Proto-Germanic *aust- "east," literally "toward the sunrise," from PIE root *aus- (1) "to shine," especially of the dawn...

change

c. 1200, "to alter, make different, change" (transitive); early 13c. as "to substitute one for another;" mid-13c. as "to make (something) other than what it was, cause to turn or pass from one state to another;" from late 13c. as "to become different, be altered" (intransitive),

begin

Old English beginnan "to attempt, undertake," a rare word beside the more usual form onginnan (class III strong verb; past tense ongann, past participle ongunnen); from be- + West Germanic *ginnan, which is of obscure etymology and found only in compounds, perhaps "to open, open

binge

1854, "drinking bout," also (v.) "drink heavily, soak up alcohol;" dialectal use of binge "soak" (a wooden vessel). Said to have been originally as a dialect word. Binge is noted in Evans' "Leicestershire Words, Phrases and Proverbs" (London, 1848) as a dialect verb for "To soak

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