# honeymoon

Pronunciation: say "HUN-ee-moon" /ˈhʌn.iˌmuːn/

## Noun

1. A trip or vacation that a newly married couple takes in the period just after their wedding.
   - Simple: A trip that two people take just after they get married.
   - _The couple spent their honeymoon hiking in the Swiss Alps._
   - _The resort offers honeymoon packages with dinners on the beach._
2. A period of goodwill at the start of a new term of office or relationship, such as toward a newly elected politician or a new business arrangement.
   - Simple: A time when people are kind and patient at the start of something new, like a new leader's job.
   - _New presidents usually get a brief honeymoon with voters and the press._
   - _Once the honeymoon period ended, the two companies began fighting over costs._
3. The period of time immediately after a wedding.
   - Simple: The time just after two people get married.
   - _The young pastor and his wife were barely a month into their honeymoon when they arrived in the town._
   - _They spent the honeymoon at home, unpacking boxes and painting the kitchen._

## Verb

4. To take a trip as a newly married couple in the period just after the wedding.
   - Simple: To go on a trip just after getting married.
   - _Couples who honeymoon abroad should check their passports well before the wedding._
   - _They spent three weeks honeymooning along the coast of Portugal._

## Origin

From earlier hony moone, equivalent to honey + moon, first naming the period just after a wedding. The original reference was to affection waning like the moon, but the sense later became "the first month, or moon, after marriage", which tends to be the sweetest. Compare Middle Low German suckermânt (literally "sugar-month"); French lune de miel is a calque of the English term, and German Honigmond a calque of the French.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/honeymoon (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).