honeymoon
/ˈhʌn.iˌmuːn/ noun, verb
Forms honeymoons honeymooning honeymooned
- noun The period of time immediately following a marriage.
- noun A trip taken by a newly married couple during this period. “We went to Greece for our honeymoon.”
- noun (by extension) A period of goodwill at the beginning of a new term or relationship (e.g. towards a newly elected politician or in respect of a new business arrangement). “Now that the honeymoon is over, it’s time for us to get down to the business at hand.”
- verb To have a honeymoon (a trip taken by a couple after wedding). “My parents honeymooned at Niagara falls.”
Synonyms
Etymology
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.
Webster’s 1913
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “honeymoon”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details