summer dayn.
/ˌsʌmə ˈdeɪ/, U.S. /ˌsəmər ˈdeɪ/ 1. A day in summer, esp. one characterized as long, warm, pleasant, etc. Cf. summer's day n.In quots. a1400 and ?c1450 perhaps: Midsummer Day; cf. quot. a1250 at summer's day n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > period > year > season > [noun] > summer > summer's day
summer's daya1250
summer daya1393
a1393 J. Gower Confessio Amantis (Fairf.) ii. l. 732 This was upon a Somer dai.
a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) l. 9946 A tron of iuor..þat es o gretter light and leme þan somer dai es son bem.
?c1450 Life St. Cuthbert (1891) l. 5634 In þe hete of somyr day.
1523 J. Skelton Goodly Garlande of Laurell sig. C.iij Of the wynter nyghtes that tary so longe And of the somer days so longe that doth last.
a1600 R. Lindsay Hist. & Cron. Scotl. (1899) I. 229 Frome the sone ryssing quhill the sone ȝeid to in ane lang sommer day.
1609 W. Shakespeare Pericles xv. 69 While Sommer dayes doth last. View more context for this quotation
1682 A. Peden Serm. (1782) II. 36 A man shall ride a summer day's journey within the shire of Ayr, and not see a house reek, or hear a cock crow, ere ye get reformation.
1694 tr. O. G. de Busbecq Four Epist. conc. Embassy into Turkey iii. 245 They measure their Fasts by the course of the Moon, and there are none more irksom to them, than those which fall out in the long Summer-days.
1711 J. Addison Spectator No. 128. ¶10 The Lady..hates your tedious Summer-Days.
a1774 O. Goldsmith Surv. Exper. Philos. (1776) I. 329 He calculated that it [sc. the Mediterranean sea] would lose by evaporation, every summer day, fifty-two thousand and eighty millions of tons.
1823 W. Scott Quentin Durward I. v. 112 To spend summer-day and winter-night up in yonder battlements.
1848 E. Bulwer-Lytton King Arthur I. 6 This soft summer-day.
1902 W. S. Gordon Recoll. Old Quarter 121 How the rustic hymns would be drawled out in the long summer days.
1991 Daily Tel. 5 Jan. (Colour Suppl.) 59 (advt.) After long summer days comes a lingering autumn.
2016 Toronto Star (Nexis) 19 July e1 His approach is academic, but says some people are naturally attuned to the shifting winds on a hot summer day.
2. figurative and allusively. A pleasant, easy, or successful time; a high point or climax. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > [noun] > stretch, period, or portion of time > period of certain character, condition, or events
dayOE
dayOE
summer day1563
tempestivity1569
set1633
stretch1689
period1712
run1714
tack1723
spell1827
dreamtime1844
time coursea1867
patch1897
dreaming1932
quality time1972
1563 L. Humphrey Nobles or of Nobilitye i. sig. o.vii And greete to our England, the brightnes of this season, and the sommer dayes, whiche god hath graunted our noble Queene Elizabeth.
1717 W. Massey Musa Parænetica ix. 31 Who, that is wise, would idly knit Delays, And make no Profit in the Summer Days?
1791 Analyt. Rev. July 282 Who idly rov'st the summer day, Fluttering a transient life away.
1806 Ann. Rev. 4 466 The summer days of Naples were over.
1832 Ld. Tennyson May Queen vi, in Poems (new ed.) 92 There's many a bolder lad 'ill woo me any summer day.
1989 A. Grossman in Harvard Bk. Rev. Winter 1/1 That all may read, in times to come, the history Of our summer day, in the language of the born.
Compounds
General attributive.
ΚΠ
1869 A. J. Evans Vashti xxii. 290 No mere gala barge..was his religion; no fair summer-day toy.
1906 C. C. Munn Girl from Tim's Place xxxi. 321 He also..loved trout brooks and wildwood life—not wildwood life in its true sense, but the summer-day kind, where, clad as he was, he could follow some meadow brook or sit in the shade and watch it while indulging in day-dreams.
2011 Sun Jrnl. (New Bern, N. Carolina) 2 Feb. Especially in the summer, with the Spanish moss, it has that lazy, summer day feel to it.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2017; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
<
n.a1393