From reality TV usher to The Beach Boys ’ croons of Aruba and Jamaica , references to honeymoons are everywhere . But where did the term " honeymoon " first amount from ?
The etymology of the word comes from the Old English “ hony moone . ”Hony , a point of reference to honey , advert to the “ indefinite stop of tenderness and pleasure get by a new we d couple , " and how honeyed the new wedding is . Moone , meanwhile , refer to the fleeting amount of time that sweetness would last . While honeymoon has a cocksure connotation today , it was first used as a term to warn honeymooner about waning lovemaking .
Thefirst recorded verbal description of the wordcomes from 1542 , when Samuel Johnson wrote : “ The first month after marriage , when there is nothing but warmness and pleasure ; originally having no reference to the period of a calendar month , but comparing mutual affection of newly - married person to the change moon which is no rather full that it begins to wane … ”
But do n’t worry , the cynicism does n’t stop there . In 1552,author Richard Huloet write : “ Hony mone , a terminal figure proverbially applied to such as be newly get married , which will not devolve out at the first , but th’one loveth the other at the beginning exceedingly , the likelihood of their exceadings love appearing to aswage , ye which time the vulgar people call the hony mone . ”
“ Honeymoon ” also has origin thatdate back to the 5th C , when culture represented calendar time with moon cycles . Back then , a newlywed couple drank mead ( the “ dearest ” ) during their first lunation of marriage . Mead is a honey - based alcoholic drink believed to have aphrodisiac prop .
While most span today travel on their honeymoon to be alone , it was n’t always that way . Couples in 19thcentury Britain used their honeymoon to go on abridal spell , where the pair travel to visit Quaker and family who could not take care the wedding ceremony .
