Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Honeymoon |
HoneymoonNoun1. A holiday taken by a newly married couple. 2. The early usually calm and harmonious period of a relationship; business or political. Verb1. Spend a honeymoon. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "honeymoon" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1749. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Literature | Honeymoon The month after marriage, or so much of it as is spent away from home; so called from the practice of the ancient Teutons of drinking honey-wine (hydromel) for thirty days after marriage. Attila, the Hun, indulged so freely in hydromel at his wedding-feast that he died. "It was the custom of the higher order of the Teutons ... to drink mead or metheglin (a beverage made from honey) for thirty days after every wedding. From this comes the expression `to spend the honeymoon.' " - W. Pulleyn: Etymological Compendium, 8, 9, p. 142. Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
A honeymoon is the traditional trip taken by newlyweds to celebrate their marriage, and presumably, consummate it. Today, honeymoons are often celebrated in secluded, exotic, warm, or other places that are thought to be special and romantic. For example, warm, sunny beaches, rugged, scenic coastlines, and mountain retreats.
The origin of the honeymoon
There is some disagreement as to the origin of the notion of the honeymoon and the etymology of the word "honeymoon."
One explanation is that, while today it has positive meaning, the word "honeymoon" was a sardonic reference to the inevitable waning of love like a phase of the moon. This, the first literary reference to the honeymoon was penned in 1552, in Richard Huloet's Abecedarium Anglico Latinum.
Another explanation is that there was supposed to be a tradition that involved drinking mead, a honey-based alcoholic drink, for a lunar month after a marriage.
Some believe the term to be a vulgarization of the Norse word "hjunottsmanathr". After kidnapping one's bride, she was kept hidden away until pregnant or her family stopped looking for her, and then was brought back to formalize the wedding.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Honeymoon."
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Endearment | Honeymoon; Strephon and Chloe. |
Marriage | Torch of Hymen, temple of Hymen; hymeneal altar; honeymoon. |
Pleasure | Honeymoon; palmy days, halcyon days; golden age, golden time; Dixie, Dixie's land; Saturnia regna, Arcadia, Shangri-La, happy valley, Agapemone. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Honeymoon |
| English words defined with "honeymoon": Honey month ♦ Niagara Falls. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "honeymoon": ORPHEUS. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Because you have always been so kind to me, and I won't be seeing you again since I'm killing myself once we reach the honeymoon suite (The Princess Bride; writing credit: William Goldman) Now, without warning, their honeymoon was to become a nightmare (The Creeping Terror; writing credit: Arthur Ross; Robert Silliphant) Sideshow Bob tried to kill me on our honeymoon. (The Simpsons; writing credit: Artur Brauner; Paul Hengge) Now, this honeymoon is complicated enough without your dragging medical ethics into it. (Spellbound; writing credit: Ben Hecht) We're on our honeymoon! (The Emperor's New Groove; writing credit: Chris Williams; Mark Dindal) | |
Lyrics | And since this ain't no Honeymoon, I'm here to stay (Funkdafied; performing artist: Da Brat) Well the honeymoon ended and life began (I Lost IT; performing artist: Kenny Chesney) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Honeymoon (1974) Nightmare Honeymoon (1973) The Honeymoon Killers (1970) Honeymoon with a Spider (1970) Sickened Honeymoon (1965) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
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Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Pleated Gentian near Honeymoon Lake in the Steens area. Credit: Mark Armstrong. |  | A honeymoon 'cross country. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | The honeymoon is over : he gave me a black eye at Carnegie Hall. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Wonder how long the honeymoon will last?. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | On Honeymoon Trip--Ernest M. Hemingway, 41, noted author, and his 28-year-old bride, the former Martha Gellhorn, writer and member of a prominent St. Louis family, start their honeymoon trip from Cheyenne, Wyo., Nov. 22 for New York City. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | They were on their honeymoon. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Ithaca, New York. Interior of a shack in which a man lived for twenty-five years. His wife would not let him live with her. She was mad at him for having backed a Model T Ford over her on their honeymoon. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | An Aerial honeymoon invented and patented by John F. Byrne : funniest show in the world - the huge pantomimic musical comedy. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Messrs. S.S. Shubert & Nixon & Zimmerman's production of A Chinese honeymoon by George Dance & Howard Talbot. Credit: Library of Congress. | ||
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
 |  |
| "Candlelight 3" by Hayanto H Commentary: "Picture was taken in my friend's wedding day. <br>and congratulation to Arif and Santi! Happy honeymoon :)." | "Watching sunset" by Adam Brown Commentary: "This is me and chimp watching the sunset on our honeymoon. I took the picture using the tilmer. Please contact me if you would like to use this photo as I have it in higher resolution (2560x1920)." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. | |
| Author | Quotation |
Oscar Wilde | Niagara Falls is only the second biggest disappointment of the standard honeymoon. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Sylvie and Bruno Concluded | Carroll, Lewis | He applies for an Experimental Honeymoon. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | For example, the physician should not recommend an agent for prophylactic use by a business traveler and deny such use by a honeymoon couple. (references) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Honeymoon" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 99.08% of the time. "Honeymoon" is used about 542 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 99.08% | 537 | 11,465 |
| Lexical Verb (infinitive) | 0.55% | 3 | 202,518 |
| Lexical Verb (base form) | 0.37% | 2 | 245,945 |
| Total | 100.00% | 542 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expression using "honeymoon": on honeymoon. Additional references. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day | Expression | Frequency per Day |
honeymoon | 4,226 | honeymoon cabin | 100 |
honeymoon suite | 1,030 | cheap honeymoon | 85 |
honeymoon cruise | 862 | honeymoon vacation package | 83 |
island honeymoon | 745 | romantic honeymoon | 81 |
honeymoon package | 726 | hawaii honeymoon package | 65 |
tropical honeymoon | 676 | honeymoon trip | 62 |
tahiti honeymoon | 638 | all inclusive honeymoon package | 61 |
hawaii honeymoon | 607 | honeymoon registry | 61 |
alaska honeymoon cruise | 545 | honeymoon lingerie | 60 |
honeymoon vacation | 502 | las vegas honeymoon | 58 |
honeymoon destination | 400 | jamaica honeymoon | 57 |
honeymoon resort | 229 | costa rica honeymoon | 56 |
all inclusive honeymoon | 182 | honeymoon in hawaii | 53 |
honeymoon safari | 150 | hawaiian honeymoon | 53 |
honeymoon location | 148 | honeymoon special | 52 |
honeymoon travel | 144 | beach honeymoon | 51 |
caribbean honeymoon | 143 | florida honeymoon | 51 |
honeymoon getaway | 129 | poconos honeymoon | 50 |
honeymoon spot | 111 | honeymoon hotel | 48 |
honeymoon idea | 109 | honeymoon maui | 48 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Translations for "honeymoon"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | periudhë fillestare, muaj mjalti. (various references) | |
Arabic | قضى شهر العسل, شهر العسل. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | сватбено пътешествие, меден месец. (various references) | |
Chinese | 蜜月假期 , 蜜月. (various references) | |
Czech | trávit líbánky, svatební cesta, líbánky, být na svatební cestì. (various references) | |
Dutch | huwelijksweken, huwelijksweken, huwelýksweken. (various references) | |
Esperanto | miela monato. (various references) | |
Farsi | ماه عسل رفتن , ماه عسل . (various references) | |
Finnish | kuherruskuukausi. (various references) | |
French | lune de miel. (various references) | |
German | flitterwochen. (various references) | |
Greek | γαμήλιο ταξίδι, μην του μέλιτοσ, μήνασ του μέλιτοσ, μήνας του μέλιτος, διάγω τον μήνα του μέλιτοσ. (various references) | |
Hebrew | ירח דבש. (various references) | |
Hungarian | nászút (honeymoon trip). (various references) | |
Indonesian | bulan madu. (various references) | |
Italian | luna di miele. (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 新婚旅行 . (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | ハネムーン , しんこんりょこう, みつげつ. (various references) | |
Korean | 허니문. (various references) | |
Manx | mee phoosee, mee ny molley. (various references) | |
Norwegian | bryllupsreise. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | oneymoonhay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | lua-de-mel, lua‐de‐mel. (various references) | |
Romanian | lunã de miere, a-şi petrece lunã de miere. (various references) | |
Russian | медовый месяц. (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | medeni mesec. (various references) | |
Spanish | luna de miel. (various references) | |
Swedish | smekmånad. (various references) | |
Thai | ไปดื่มน้ำผึ้งพระจันทร์, การดื่มน้ำผึ้งพระจันทร์. (various references) | |
Turkish | balayını geçirmek, balayına çıkmak, balayı (sponsal). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | весільний (bridal, hymeneal, nuptial, wedding), медовий місяц. (various references) | |
Vietnamese | tuần trăng mật. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "honeymoon": honeymooned, honeymooner, honeymooners, honeymooning, honeymoons. (additional references) | |
| |
"Honeymoon" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: homeymoon, Honeydon, honeymen, honnymoon, honymoon, oneymoon. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "e-h-m-n-n-o-o-o-y" | |
-2 letters: nonhome. | |
-4 letters: homey, honey, hooey, hymen, money, moony, nomen. | |
-5 letters: home, homo, homy, hone, hymn, meno, mono, mony, moon, neon, nome, none, noon, omen. | |
| Words containing the letters "e-h-m-n-n-o-o-o-y" | |
+1 letter: honeymoons. | |
+2 letters: honeymooned, honeymooner. | |
+3 letters: honeymooners, honeymooning. | |
+4 letters: phenomenology. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Crosswords 3. Usage: Modern 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Images: Slideshow 6. Images: Photo Album 7. Images: Digital Art 8. Quotations: Familiar | 9. Quotations: Fiction 10. Quotations: Non-fiction 11. Usage Frequency 12. Expressions | 13. Expressions: Internet 14. Translations: Modern 15. Derivations 16. Anagrams | 17. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
