"midnight" in seven languages
Meaningmidnight
Spanish
/medjaˈnotʃe/
fem.inherited
French
/minɥi/
masc.inherited
Masculine, although nuit is feminine: le minuit was once 'the mid of the night'.
Italian
/meddzaˈnɔtte/
fem.inherited
Portuguese
/ˈmejɐ ˈnojtʃi/
fem.inherited
Romanian
/mjez de ˈno̯apte/
neut.inherited
Literally 'core of the night': miez ← MEDIUM, noapte ← NOCTEM with -CT- → -pt-; usually la miezul nopții.
Catalan
/midʒəˈnit/
fem.inherited
English
/ˈmɪdnaɪt/
Indo-European kin · PIE *médʰyos 'middle' + *nókʷts 'night'
The Latin ancestor
MEDIAM NOCTEM‘the middle of the night’
All six sisters descend from it, unless marked otherwise below.
The story
Three ways to say 'mid-night', each with its own CT: noche, nuit, notte. French shrank MEDIUM to mi- (as in midi 'noon'); English mid and night are the Germanic cousins of both halves.
English relatives: medium, median, nocturnal
Sound laws at work
Learn it
In a sentence
- esEl tren llega a medianoche.
- frLe train arrive à minuit.
- itIl treno arriva a mezzanotte.
- ptO trem chega à meia-noite.
- roTrenul sosește la miezul nopții.
- caEl tren arriba a mitjanit.
- enThe train arrives at midnight.
The Latin family
NOX, NOCT-· night
NOCTEM shows the three outcomes of Latin -CT- in one word: Spanish ch (noche), French it (nuit), Italian tt (notte). The learned words keep -ct- intact. English night is a Germanic distant cognate from the same Indo-European root, not a borrowing. Add the newer sisters and there is a fourth: Portuguese noite and Catalan nit side with French, while Romanian noapte has the Eastern -pt-.
NOCTEMnight
esnochefrnuititnotteptnoiteronoaptecanit
NOCTURNUMof the night
esnocturnofrnocturneitnotturnoptnoturnoronocturncanocturnennocturnal
MEDIAM NOCTEMmiddle of the night
esmedianochefrminuititmezzanotteptmeia-noiteromiezul nopțiicamitjanit
AEQUINOCTIUMequal night
esequinocciofréquinoxeitequinozioptequinócioroechinocțiucaequinoccienequinox