Morning

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The word morning referred originally to the sunrise, but has been extended to mean the whole early part of the day, from dawn to noon. Often the start of morning is extended before dawn, this time is considered the small hours (wee small hours) of the morning, so it can come to mean midnight to midday (in cultures using the 12-hour clock, these hours are ante meridiem, A.M., a.m., or am). Morning precedes midday, afternoon, and night in a day. Time-wise, though, the "morning" is often defined as from 5 am to 12 noon.

Morning (from the Middle English word morwening) was formed on the analogy of evening, from "morn" (in Middle English morwen), and originally meant the coming of the sunrise, as evening meant the coming of the close of the day. The Middle English morwen dropped over time, and became morwe, and eventually morrow, which properly means "morning", but was soon used to refer to the day following the present (i.e., "tomorrow").

It is often used metaphorically to refer to dawning or birth, usually with optimism, in such phrases as on a new morning or in that bright morning, for example. The phrase wee hours of the morning refers to the time between midnight and dawn. Never glad confident morning again! is a line from The Lost Leader by Robert Browning, and is a phrase often used, particularly in politics, of a leading figure tarnished by events (most famously used by Nigel Birch MP about Harold Macmillan, then Prime Minister, in the 1963 post-Profumo debate). And President Ronald Reagan used the phrase "It's morning in America" in one of his more famous campaign commercials.

Morning can also refer to the time of day following the wake-up of an individual, regardless of the current time of day. This part of day includes mostly menial tasks, needed to regain full productivity and ability for group socializing (i.e. shower, a morning meal, usually breakfast, dressing, etc.). The period end is vaguely defined when the individuals reach their full productivity level and are involved in any constructive social or otherwise activity. This expansion to the term was mostly contributed by the worldwide spread of electricity and independence from natural light sources.

A morning newspaper is one on sale in the mornings (as opposed to an evening newspaper, on sale from about noon onwards). In practice (though this may vary according to country) this means that a morning newspaper is available in early editions from before midnight on the night before its cover date, further editions being printed and distributed during the night. Previews of tomorrow's newspapers are often a feature of late night news programs, such as Newsnight in the United Kingdom.

Morning meals include breakfast, though logically this need not be in the morning, and are very varied across cultures. Brunch is a late morning meal.