The History and Meaning of the word 'Honeymoon'

Alan on Twitter asked us to look into the origin of the word "honeymoon" after getting a sentence in Duolingo Spanish that included the phrase "la luna de miel," which also seems to translate literally to "moon of honey." What does honey have to do with it? Let's start with the idea of a honeymoon in general and moon cycles.

A honeymoon was originally a length of time

Do you know that most couples get married in the months of May through October in the United States? Even if you didn’t know that, you probably know what follows a wedding: the honeymoon! Today, we tend to think of a honeymoon as a vacation for newlyweds. But, it used to refer simply to the 30 days or so after a wedding, hence the word “moon” in “honeymoon.” 

Honeymoon feelings wane like the moon

A lunar cycle is 29.53 days and begins with a new moon. That’s when the moon, if you can see it, looks like a black disk in the night sky. As the moon orbits the Earth, Earth orbits the sun, and the angles between sun, moon, and Earth change resulting in changes in the amount of sunlight reflected off the moon. In the first quarter of a lunar cycle, you see a little bit more of the moon each night in its waxing phases. Then, in the last quarter, you gradually see less and less of the moon during its waning phases.

Waxing, in that context, means growing or increasing. Conversely, waning means to decrease, decline, or diminish. Both waxing and waning can be used to describe more than moon phases. Many things wax and wane, and that brings us back to the word “honeymoon.”

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, John Heywood, an English writer of plays, poems, and proverbs, is credited with first using “hony moone” in print in 1546, to refer to the first month of marriage. Through the centuries, various spellings, such as “honney moone” or “hony moon,” have appeared in print, but they all referred to the same thing: mirthfulness that grows at the beginning of something new and then gradually wanes. That new thing could be marriage, employment, or some other new phase or experience in life when those initial...

Keep reading on Quick and Dirty Tips