GeezerVison

English

Alternative forms

ev'ning (obsolete)

Etymology 1

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *h₁ep-

Proto-Indo-European *-s

Proto-Indo-European *h₁éps

Proto-Indo-European *-i

Proto-Indo-European *h₁épider.

Proto-Germanic *ēbanþs

Proto-West Germanic *ābanþ

Old English ǣfen

Proto-Indo-European *-h₂

Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂

Proto-Indo-European *-yéti

Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti

Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ti

Proto-Germanic *-ōną

Proto-West Germanic *-ōn

Proto-West Germanic *-ōjan

Old English -ian

Old English ǣfnian

▲

Proto-Germanic *-ōną

Proto-Germanic *-gō

Proto-Germanic *-ōngō?

Proto-Germanic *-ungō

Old English -ung

Old English ǣfnung

Middle English evenynge

English evening

From Middle English evenynge, evenyng, from Old English ǣfnung, from ǣfnian (“to become evening”), from ǣfen (“eve”) (from Proto-West Germanic *ābanþ, from Proto-Germanic *ēbanþs), corresponding to even +‎ -ing.

Pronunciation

enPR: ēv'nĭng
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈiːv.nɪŋ/
- (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈiv.nɪŋ/
Audio (UK): (file)
Audio (US): (file)

Noun

evening (countable and uncountable, plural evenings)

The time of day between afternoon and night.
Synonyms: see Thesaurus:evening

Toward evening, there was heavy rain.

I met my wife on a summer's evening in 1999.
- 2013 July–August, Henry Petroski, “Geothermal Energy”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 4:
  Energy has seldom been found where we need it when we want it. Ancient nomads, wishing to ward off the evening chill and enjoy a meal around a campfire, had to collect wood and then spend time and effort coaxing the heat of friction out from between sticks to kindle a flame. With more settled people, animals were harnessed to capstans or caged in treadmills to turn grist into meal.
The time of the day between the approximate time of midwinter dusk and midnight (compare afternoon); the period after the end of regular office working hours.
- 1892, Walter Besant, chapter III, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC:
  At half-past nine on this Saturday evening, the parlour of the Salutation Inn, High Holborn, contained most of its customary visitors. […] In former days every tavern of repute kept such a room for its own select circle, a club, or society, of habitués, who met every evening, for a pipe and a cheerful glass.
- 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
  That the young Mr. Churchills liked—but they did not like him coming round of an evening and drinking weak whisky-and-water while he held forth on railway debentures and corporation loans. Mr Barrett, however, by fawning and flattery, seemed to be able to make not only Mrs. Churchill but everyone else do what he desired.
(figuratively) A concluding time period; a point in time near the end of something; the beginning of the end of something.
It was the evening of the Roman Empire.
- 1950 January, “Notes and News: The North Cornwall Line”, in Railway Magazine, page 62:
  The latter [locomotive] had worked on the Hampton Court branch for many years, and was spending the evening of its life in the West Country.
A party or gathering held in the evening.
- 1980, Management Services, page 50:
  A few Gorllewin Cymru/West Wales Branch members attended an evening at the Dragon Hotel, Swansea, titled Photographic Techniques in Industry.