Midsummer Night
1
6.8
- noun
:
Noche de Midsummer
- It is Midsummer Night, Miss Julie.
- Midsummer Night's Dream
Examples
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Let's hope that the baron will never find out what happened here, in his servant's room, this Midsummer Night.
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Why are you wearing your livery on Midsummer Night?
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Charles has a welcoming treat: tickets for the Royal Shakespeare Company's Midsummer Night's Dream at the Barbican.
Fiction book (1993) -
Tonight's performance is A Midsummer Night's Dream, one of her favorites—the fairies are so courtly; the confusion is so well-framed.
Fiction book (1998) -
On Midsummer Night, many people celebrate with bonfires and merriment.
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The festivities on Midsummer Night include dancing and feasting under the stars.
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Families often gather to tell stories and enjoy each other's company on Midsummer Night.
Synonyms
1
8.4
The evening before Midsummer Day when people celebrate with bonfires and dances
The night before Midsummer Day when people in some countries celebrate with bonfires and festivals
The evening before Midsummer Day when people light bonfires and celebrate
The night before Midsummer Day that people in some countries celebrate with bonfires and songs
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase simply names the night associated with midsummer: combining 'midsummer' (the middle/longest day of summer) with 'night' yields a straightforward temporal reference that a B1 learner would infer. While specific festival customs may require cultural knowledge, the basic temporal meaning is compositional and paralleled across many languages.
Etymology
Midsummer Night comes from the literal idea of the midsummer (the middle of summer) night, the night near the 'longest day' when people lit bonfires, danced and celebrated. So the phrase now means the special, festive night before 'Midsummer Day'.