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Indian summer
[Indian a. 2.]
a. A period of calm, dry, mild weather, with hazy atmosphere, occurring in the late autumn in the Northern United States. Also transf. in other countries.
(The name is generally attributed to the fact that the region in which the meteorological conditions in question were originally noticed was still occupied by the Indians; but other more specific explanations have been essayed. In its origin it appears to have had nothing to do with the glowing autumnal tints of the foliage, with which it is sometimes associated. The actual time of its occurrence and the character of the weather appear also to vary for different regions: see the quots.)
1778‘J. H. St. John de Crèvecœur’ Sk. 18th-Cent. Amer. (1925) 41 It [sc. snow] is often preceded by a short interval of smoke and mildness, called the Indian Summer. 1794E. Denny Milit. Jrnl. (1859) 198, Oct. 13th—Pleasant weather. The Indian summer here [near Presqu' Isle]. Frosty nights. 1804C. B. Brown tr. Volney's View Soil U.S. 210 A series of fine days are expected near November, which is called the Indian summer [une série de beaux jours, appelés l'été sauvage (Indian summer)]. 1812J. Freeman Serm. viii. 277–8 note, Two or three weeks of fair weather, in which the air is perfectly transparent, and the clouds, which float in a sky of the purest azure, are adorned with brilliant colours... This charming season is called the Indian Summer, a name which is derived from the natives, who believe that it is caused by a wind, which comes immediately from the court of their great and benevolent God Cautantowwit, or the south-western God. 1817J. Bradbury Trav. Amer. 259 About the beginning or middle of October the Indian summer commences, and is immediately known by the change which takes place in the atmosphere, as it becomes hazy, or what they term smoky. 1824Doddridge Notes on Ind. Wars W. Virginia 266 The smokey time commenced and lasted for a considerable number of days. This was the Indian summer, because it afforded the Indians another opportunity of visiting the settlements with their destructive warfare. 1837Longfellow Drift-Wood Prose Wks. 1886 I. 324 There is..no long and lingering autumn, pompous with many-coloured leaves and the glow of Indian summers. 1860O. W. Holmes Elsie V. xiii. (1891) 186 The real forest is hardly still except in the Indian summer. 1878G. Meredith Let. 9 Oct. (1970) II. 563 Perhaps you and Mrs. Carr will do us the honour to come and see the Indian summer here. 1887J. C. Morison Service of Man (1889) 128 The soft autumnal calm, and purple tints as of an Indian summer. 1906W. Marriott Hints to Meteorol. Observers (ed. 6) 66/2 Indian Summer, fine weather for a few days about September 30, in North America. 1939[see Gupta a. and n.]. 1958Hayward & Harari tr. Pasternak's Dr. Zhivago i. iv. 110 The end of a hot golden autumn had turned into an Indian summer. 1960J. Rae Custard Boys i. vi. 69 Meanwhile the Indian summer continued warm and dusty on the trodden earth of the farmyard. 1962Sunday Times 16 Sept. 1/3 An Indian summer in the West Country brought peak holiday traffic jams in Devon yesterday.
fig.1830De Quincey Bentley Wks. VI. 180 An Indian summer crept stealthily over his closing days. 1899Austin Indian Summer, Long may the Indian Summer of your days Yet linger in the Land you love so well! 1918Galsworthy in Five Tales (title) The Indian summer of a Forsyte. 1930V. Sackville-West Edwardians iii. 100 Meanwhile she was quite content that Sebastian should become tanned in the rays of Sylvia's Indian summer. 1962N. Del Mar Richard Strauss I. ix. 418 The works of his Indian Summer when, in the last five years of his life, inspiration came to him once more.
b. attrib. and Comb.
1848Lowell (title) An Indian-Summer Reverie. 1856Mrs. Stowe Dred II. 221 It is a calm, still, Indian summer afternoon. 1883E. P. Roe in Harper's Mag. Dec. 46/1 A perpetual Indian-summer haze of kindliness. 1898Boldrewood Rom. Canvass Town 71 Cool nights, bracing mornings and mild Indian-summer-like days. 1927M. de la Roche Jalna xvii. 190 The drowsy Indian-summer heat still continued, but the air had become heavier. 1961M. Beadle These Ruins are Inhabited (1963) vii. 97 Homeward bound in a lackadaisical Indian-summer mood.
Hence Indian-ˈsummerish a. nonce-wd.
1852Thoreau Autumn (1894) 79 It is a warm, Indian-summerish afternoon. |