Midvinter

Part of speech: noun, adjective

Definitions

1. The central part of the winter season, roughly around the solstice and the coldest stretch of the year
2. The period in the middle of winter, when the days are shortest and the cold is at its deepest
3. The midpoint of the cold season, especially the time around the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere

Etymology: Midvinter is a compound of "mid" and "winter," and its earliest uses in English date from Old English, where "midwinter" was already in use for the middle of the cold season. The "mid" in such words means "middle," the same sense it has in "midday" or "midsummer," so the word literally names the point halfway through winter rather than a fixed date on the calendar. Because the season's midpoint falls near the December solstice, midwinter came to mean the solstice period itself, and in older English it could also refer to the whole Christmas season. In that sense, the word once marked a span of festive time with its own customs, not just a moment of cold weather. The adjective use, as in "a midwinter night," follows naturally from the noun, describing anything that belongs to that central stretch of winter. Its counterpart, "midsummer," shows the same pattern and was formed on the same model.