winter

• Winter

From Middle English winter, from Old English winter, from Proto-Germanic *wintruz (“winter”). Cognate with West Frisian winter (“winter”), Dutch winter (“winter”), German Winter (“winter”), Danish, Swedish and Norwegian vinter (“winter”), Icelandic vetur (“winter”).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈwɪntə/
• (General American, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈwɪntɚ/, enPR: wĭnʹtər
  • IPA^(key): [ˈwɪɾ̃ɚ], [ˈwɪntʰɚ]
  • (US)

    (file)

    IPA^(key): [ˈwɪntʰɚ]

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪntə(ɹ)
• Homophone: winner (US, Canada, some dialects)
• Hyphenation (UK): winter, (US): win‧ter

winter (countable and uncountable, plural winters)

Winter in Austria

1. Traditionally the fourth of the four seasons, typically regarded as being from December 23 to March 20 in continental regions of the Northern Hemisphere or the months of June, July and August in the Southern Hemisphere. It is the time when the sun is lowest in the sky, resulting in short days, and the time of year with the lowest atmospheric temperatures for the region.
   • a1420, The British Museum Additional MS, 12,056, “Wounds complicated by the Dislocation of a Bone”, in Robert von Fleischhacker, editor, Lanfranc's "Science of cirurgie."‎, London: K. Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co, translation of original by Lanfranc of Milan, published 1894, →ISBN, page 63:

     Ne take noon hede to brynge togidere þe parties of þe boon þat is to-broken or dislocate, til viij. daies ben goon in þe wyntir, & v. in þe somer; for þanne it schal make quytture, and be sikir from swellynge; & þanne brynge togidere þe brynkis eiþer þe disiuncture after þe techynge þat schal be seid in þe chapitle of algebra.

   • 1592, Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 1:

     And after summer evermore succeeds / Barren winter, with his wrathful nipping cold.

   • 1646, Thomas Browne, “Of the Cameleon”, in Pseudodoxia Epidemica: Or, Enquiries into Very Many Received Tenents, and Commonly Presumed Truths, London: Printed for Tho. Harper for Edvvard Dod, OCLC 838860010; Pseudodoxia Epidemica: Or, Enquiries into Very Many Received Tenents, and Commonly Presumed Truths. […], book 3, 2nd corrected and much enlarged edition, London: Printed by A. Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath. Ekins, […], 1650, OCLC 152706203, page 133:

     It cannot be denied it [the chameleon] is (if not the moſt of any) a very abſtemious animall, and ſuch as by reaſon of its frigidity, paucity of bloud, and latitancy in the winter (about which time the obſervations are often made) will long ſubſist without a viſible ſuſtentation.

   • 1785, William Cowper, “Tirocinium: or, A Review of Schools." in The Poems of William Cowper, Vol. II., The Press of C. Whittingham (1822), page 174:

     There shall he learn, ere sixteen winters old, / That [...]

   • 1897, William Morris, The Water of the Wondrous Isles, Vol. I, Longmans, Green and Co. (1914), page 2:

     [...] a woman, tall, and strong of aspect, of some thirty winters by seeming, [...]

2. (figuratively, poetic) The period of decay, old age, death, or the like.
   • (Can we date this quote?), William Wordsworth, (Please provide the book title or journal name):

     Life's autumn past, I stand on winter's verge.

3. (obsolete) An appliance to be fixed on the front of a grate, to keep a kettle warm, etc.

Note that season names are usually uncapitalized in modern English (for example, spring), except when personified (Old Man Winter). This is contrast to the days of the week and months of the year, which are always capitalized (Thursday or September).

winter (third-person singular simple present winters, present participle wintering, simple past and past participle wintered)

1. (intransitive) To spend the winter (in a particular place).

   When they retired, they hoped to winter in Florida.

2. (transitive) To store something (for instance animals) somewhere over winter to protect it from cold.

• overwinter
• Wintered Over Device
• winterer
• wintering

• twiner

From Dutch winter.

winter (plural winters)

1. winter

• wenter, wénter

From Middle High German winter, from Old High German wintar, from Proto-Germanic *wintruz. Cognate with German Winter, Dutch winter, English winter, Swedish vinter.

winter m

1. (Issime, Carcoforo) winter

• “winter” in Patuzzi, Umberto, ed., (2013) Ünsarne Börtar [Our Words], Luserna, Italy: Comitato unitario delle linguistiche storiche germaniche in Italia / Einheitskomitee der historischen deutschen Sprachinseln in Italien

From Middle Dutch winter, from Old Dutch winter, from Proto-Germanic *wintruz.

• audio

  (file)

• IPA^(key): /ˈʋɪn.tər/

winter m (plural winters, diminutive wintertje n)

1. winter

• Afrikaans: winter

• (seasons) seizoen, jaargetijde; lente/voorjaar, zomer, herfst/najaar, winter ^{(Category: nl:Seasons)}

From Old Dutch winter, from Proto-Germanic *wintruz.

winter m

1. winter

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

• wintersch
• middewinter
• wintercoude
• winterdach

• Dutch: winter
  • Afrikaans: winter
• Limburgish: wintjer

• “winter”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
• “winter”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, 1929

• wintere, wintre

From Old English winter; in turn from Proto-Germanic *wintruz.

• IPA^(key): /ˈwintər/

winter (plural winteres or winters)

1. winter

• English: winter
• Scots: winter
• Yola: wonter

From Proto-Germanic *wintruz.

winter m

1. winter

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

• Middle Dutch: winter
  • Dutch: winter

• “winter”, in Oudnederlands Woordenboek, 2012

• ƿinter

From Proto-Germanic *wintruz, whence also Old Frisian winter, Old High German and Old Saxon wintar, Old Norse vetr and vintr, Gothic 𐍅𐌹𐌽𐍄𐍂𐌿𐍃 (wintrus). Perhaps represents a nasalised variant of Proto-Indo-European *wed- (whence also English water, wet); but perhaps akin to Old English winistre (“left (side)”), with original sense possibly a cardinal direction or possibly "unfavorable" .

• IPA^(key): /ˈwinter/

winter m

1. winter
2. year

• -wintre

• Middle English: winter, wintere, wintre
  • English: winter
  • Scots: winter
  • Yola: wonter

From Middle English winter, from Old English winter, from Proto-Germanic *wintruz.

winter (plural winters)

1. winter

From Old Frisian winter, from Proto-Germanic *wintruz.

• IPA^(key): /ˈvɪntər/

winter c (plural winters, diminutive winterke)

1. winter

• wintermoanne

• “winter”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011