Etymology
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tonite (adv.)

colloquial shortening of tonight, attested by 1918.

Present-day student notices on bulletin boards, etc., read oftener than not, "Party Friday Nite," "Meeting Tonite," "Kum Tonite," etc. [Louise Pound, "Spelling-Manipulation and Present-Day Advertising," Dialect Notes, 1923]

tonite (n.)

explosive used in blasting, 1881, from Latin tonare "to thunder" (see thunder (n.)) + -ite (2).

Entries linking to tonite

thunder (n.)

mid-13c., from Old English þunor "thunder, thunderclap; the god Thor," from Proto-Germanic *thunraz (source also of Old Norse þorr, Old Frisian thuner, Middle Dutch donre, Dutch donder, Old High German donar, German Donner "thunder"), from PIE *(s)tene- "to resound, thunder" (source also of Sanskrit tanayitnuh "thundering," Persian tundar "thunder," Latin tonare "to thunder"). Swedish tordön is literally "Thor's din." The unetymological -d- also is found in Dutch and Icelandic versions of the word (compare sound (n.1)). Thunder-stick, imagined word used by primitive peoples for "gun," attested from 1904.

-ite (2)
chemical salt suffix, from French -ite, alteration of -ate (see -ate (3)).
tonight (adv.)
Old English toniht "in the coming night," from to "at, on" (see to) + niht (see night). As a noun, "in the night after the present day," early 14c. Written as two words until 18c., after which it was to-night until early 20c.

updated on August 23, 2020

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Dictionary entries near tonite

tongueless

tongue-twister

tonic

tonify

tonight

tonite

tonnage

tonne

tonneau

tonsil

tonsillectomy

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