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sennight

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: se'nnight

English

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Etymology

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PIE word
*septḿ̥
PIE word
*nókʷts

From Middle English senight, senyght, sinight (seven days or nights, a week) [and other forms], a shortened form of seven-night, sevenight, sevenyght [and other forms],[1] from Late Old English seofeniht, seoueniht (compare seofonnihte (seven days old; seven days long, adjective)), from seofon (seven) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *septḿ̥ (seven)) + niht (night; day (when computing spans of time)) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *nókʷts (night)). Doublet of sevennight.[2]

Pronunciation

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Noun

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sennight (plural sennights)

  1. (archaic, poetic or obsolete)
    1. A period of seven consecutive days and nights; a week.
      Synonym: (archaic or obsolete) sevennight
    2. (attributively) Preceded by a specified day such as Sunday, today, or yesterday: a week from (either before or after) the specified day.
      Synonym: (archaic or obsolete) sevennight
      • 1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter XVIII, in Pride and Prejudice: [], volume I, London: [] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, [], →OCLC, page 224:
        It will be in my power to assure him that her ladyship was quite well yesterday se'nnight.
        That is, from a week before yesterday.
      • 1815 December (indicated as 1816), [Jane Austen], chapter XIII, in Emma: [], volume I, London: [] [Charles Roworth and James Moyes] for John Murray, →OCLC, page 244:
        I was snowed up at a friend's house once for a week. Nothing could be pleasanter. I went for only one night, and could not get away till that very day se'nnight.
      • 1803 (date written), [Jane Austen], chapter II, in Northanger Abbey; published in Northanger Abbey: And Persuasion. [], volume I, London: John Murray, [], 20 December 1817 (indicated as 1818), →OCLC, pages 26–27:
        We leave Bath, as she has perhaps told you, on Saturday se'nnight.
      • 1928, Virginia Woolf, chapter 1, in Orlando: A Biography, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace and Company, →OCLC, page 50:
        As for his marriage with the Lady Margaret, fixed though it was for this day sennight, the thing was so palpably absurd that he scarcely gave it a thought.
  2. (obsolete)
    Synonym: (obsolete) sevennight
    1. Preceded by a specified day and come: a week after the specified day.
    2. Preceded by a specified day and gone or was: a week before the specified day.

Alternative forms

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Coordinate terms

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Translations

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References

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  1. ^ sē̆ven-night, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  2. ^ Compare sennight, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2022; sennight, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

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Anagrams

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