My friend is busy planning a honeymoon in Phoenix.
Recently we talked about her trip and while I could have chosen to question her choice in location, I instead narrowed in on the word, “honeymoon.”
“That’s a pretty funny word,” I said. “What do you suppose ‘honey,’ and ‘moon,’ have to do with your wedded holiday?”
My friend rolled her eyes in my general direction and changed the subject back to her trip planning. Infamous for my borderline obsession with words (never leave home without your dictionary!), those close to me are used to my musings and don’t feel the need to encourage me any further down that road.
But I couldn’t be distracted; the honeymoon story is interesting.
In ancient Babylon (4,000 years ago), it was customary a father-in-law would supply a new groom all the mead he could drink for a month after his wedding.
Mead, in the dictionary, is defined as an alcoholic drink of fermented honey and water. And because the Babylonian calendar is lunar based, one month is also the length of one moon cycle.
Therefore, the month of mead was also known as the honey month, which eventually became (you guessed it) honeymoon.
The English language is a funny thing. Studying etymology, the history of words, or linguistics, the scientific study of language, can open up a whole new understanding of the world we live in.
Not that my friend is going to have a more meaningful honeymoon just because she knows how the word came into existence, but there is some comfort in knowing just why we use the term today.
This month, the LifeTrac blog takes on the Old Testament, the roots of our Christian heritage. Join the conversation as we dig deep to remember why the Old Testament is so valuable to our faith.
By Robyn Roste
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