witching hour

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English[edit]

WOTD – 31 October 2024

Etymology[edit]

From witching (“of or pertaining to witchcraft or sorcery, or to witches or sorcerers”, adjective) +‎ hour. Sense 1 (“midnight”) was popularized by the reference to the “witching time of night” in the play Hamlet (written c. 1599–1602; published 1603) by the English playwright William Shakespeare (1564–1616):[1] see the quotation.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

witching hour (plural witching hours)

  2. (chiefly literary or poetic) Often preceded by the: midnight, when witches and other supernatural beings were thought to be active, and to which bad luck was ascribed; also (generally), the middle of the night, when unfortunate things are thought more likely to occur; the dead of night.
    I wanted to get home before the witching hour.
    • [c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke: […] (Second Quarto), London: […] I[ames] R[oberts] for N[icholas] L[ing] […], published 1604, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii], signature [H4], verso:
      Tis novv the very witching time of night, / VVhen Churchyards yavvne, and hell it ſelfe breakes out / Contagion to this vvorld: […]]
    • 1811, Walter Scott, “John Leyden, M.D.”, in The Miscellaneous Prose Works of Sir Walter Scott, Bart., volume IV, Edinburgh: […] [Stevenson & Co. for] Robert Cadell; London: Houlston & Stoneman, published 1843, →OCLC, pages 174–175:
      A party of his friends had met in the evening to talk over his merits, and to drink, in Scottish phrase, his Bonallie. While, about the witching hour, they were crowning a solemn bumper to his health, a figure burst into the room, muffled in a seaman's cloak and travelling cap covered with snow, and distinguishable only by the sharpness and ardour of the tone with which he exclaimed, "Dash it, boys, here I am again!"
    • 1960 March, “Sleeping Cars to the West”, in Trains Illustrated, London: Ian Allan Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 173:
      [T]he Penzance train is shown as non-stop to Plymouth in the down direction, but in the up as being prepared to pick up sleeping car passengers at Newton Abbot, Exeter and Taunton (the two last-mentioned at the witching hours of 2.42 and 3.25 a.m.) and also to set down at Reading.
    • 1982 January 14, Roald Dahl, “The Witching Hour”, in The BFG, London: Jonathan Cape […], published 1985, →ISBN, page 10:
      Perhaps, she told herself, this was what they called the witching hour. The witching hour, somebody had once whispered to her, was a special moment in the middle of the night when every child and every grown-up was in a deep deep sleep, and all the dark things came out from hiding and had the world to themselves.
    • 2003 June 9, “The Gloaming (Softly Open Our Mouths in the Cold)”, in Hail to the Thief, performed by Radiohead, Hollywood, Los Angeles, Calif.: Capitol Records, →OCLC:
      Genie let out of the bottle / It is now the witching hour / Murderers, you're murderers / We are not the same as you
  3. (less common, occult) The hour between 3:00 a.m. and 3:59 a.m., associated with demons. [from late 20th c.]
    • 2008 July 22, Claudia Mair Burney, The Exorsistah, Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 42:
      "Do you know what three A.M. is?" […] "It's called the witching hour. It's the reverse of the holy hour—three P.M.—when Jesus died on the cross."
    • 2009 September 22, Rick Yancey, The Monstrumologist: The Terror Beneath, Simon & Schuster, →ISBN:
      The witching hour is three a.m., in mockery of the Trinity and a perversion of the hour of his death.
    • 2020 April 27, Pamela Humphrey, My Sister's Walk with God, Covenant Books, →ISBN:
      By the way, the hour between 3:00 a.m. and 4:00 a.m. is also known as the witching hour because it's thought that paranormal forces are at their strongest during that time.
  4. (by extension)
    1. A time of day, usually in the early evening, when babies and young children are more fretful and likely to cry or fuss.
      • 2022 October 17, Jenn Cox, “Age-by-age Guide to Surviving Witching Hour”, in Kim Shiffman, editor, Today’s Parent‎[1], Toronto, Ont.: St. Joseph Communications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2024-01-17:
        Witching hour: It just might be the most challenging time of the day. That window between dinner and bedtime where kids are wound up, parents want to wind down, and it feels like the longest hour or two ever. And although the term witching hour is most commonly applied to newborns and babies, kids of all ages seem to be extra sensitive at this time. Here are some ideas for getting through witching hour for kids of all ages.
    2. (originally and chiefly US, stock market) The final hour of trading each month during which certain stock options expire, leading to a higher trading volume and greater price volatility.

Translations[edit]

middle of the night — see dead of night

References[edit]

  1. ^ “witching hour, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, December 2023; “witching hour, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading[edit]

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