night
The period of darkness between sunset and sunrise.
Etymology
From Old English niht, from Proto-Germanic *nahts, from PIE *nókʷts "night." The labio-velar *kʷ was lost in most branches. This is one of the most stable basic vocabulary items. Latin nox gives us "nocturnal," "equinox" (equal night), and "nocturne." Via Germanic: "fortnight" (fourteen nights).
The Journey: *nokʷt- → night
*nókʷts
*nahts
niht
night
night
Cognates Across Languages
These words in other languages descend from the same PIE root *nokʷt-. They are not borrowings but independent inheritances from a common ancestor.
| Language | Word |
|---|---|
| Greek | nýx (gen. nyktós) |
| Latin | nox (gen. noctis) |
| Hittite | nekuz |
| Albanian | natë |
| Sanskrit | nákti |
| Old Irish | nocht |
| Lithuanian | naktìs |
| Old Church Slavonic | noštĭ |
Did You Know?
A fortnight is literally "fourteen nights" — Old English fēowertīene niht. Early Germanic peoples counted time in nights rather than days, which is why we still say "tomorrow night" but also "overnight." The equinox is the "equal night" — when day and night are the same length.
This word descends from the Proto-Indo-European root *nokʷt-. See the full root page for descendant trees, sound law references, and scholarly discussion.