Midwinter

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˌmɪdˈwɪntə(ɹ)/

Definitions

1. The time of year near the winter solstice when daylight is shortest and temperatures are typically at their lowest
2. The season centered around the winter solstice, marking the point when the sun's path reaches its most southern declination and cold is most intense
3. The period approximately at the midpoint of the winter season when days are shortest and cold is often at its peak

Etymology: Midwinter is one of the rare English words that is simply a description of time, built from two plain parts: "mid", meaning middle, and "winter". The idea is literal. The word names the middle of the cold season, the point roughly halfway through winter, rather than a fixed calendar day or a festival. That makes it a neat piece of ancient bookkeeping: people were marking where the year had turned, long before any single date was fixed for it. The word goes back a long way in the Germanic languages. Old English had "midwinter", and its ancestors stretch back to a reconstructed Proto-Germanic form, "midjawintruz", which carried the same sense. Its relatives survive across northern Europe: German "Mittwinter", Dutch "midwinter", Swedish "midvinter" and Danish "midvinter" all describe the same point in the year, which suggests the concept was shared among these peoples well before their languages separated.

Synonyms: winter solstice, midst of winter

Antonyms: summer