English
evening
Evening comes from Middle English evening, from Old English ǣfnung, from ǣfnian ‘to become evening’, from ǣfen ‘eve’.
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*ēbanþs1reconstructed
- Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*ābanþ1reconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150ǣfen1‘eve’
- Old Englishc. 450–1150ǣfnian1‘to become evening’
- Old Englishc. 450–1150ǣfnung1
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500evening1
- Englishearliest quotation 1892evening1
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English evening
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1892, Walter Besant, New York: “At half-past nine on this Saturday evening, the parlour…”.
Lineage
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*ēbanþsWiktionary, English eveningreconstructed
- Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*ābanþWiktionary, English eveningreconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150ǣfenWiktionary, English evening‘eve’
- Old Englishc. 450–1150ǣfnianWiktionary, English evening‘to become evening’
- Old Englishc. 450–1150ǣfnungWiktionary, English evening
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500eveningWiktionary, English evening
- Englishearliest quotation 1892eveningWiktionary, English evening. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1892, Walter Besant, New York: “At half-past nine on this Saturday evening, the parlour…”
Word family
English words that share an ancestor with evening, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.
through Proto-Indo-European *h₁épi ‘on, at, near’
through Old English ǣfen ‘eve’
9 more relatives in the full family tree
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Today it means
noun The time of day between afternoon and night.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “evening”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *ēbanþs / evening