Morning

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The word morning originally referred to the sunrise. Morning precedes midday, afternoon, and night in the sequence of a day.

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

It is often used metaphorically to refer to a dawning or birth, and connoting optimism, as found in such phrases as on a new morning or in that bright morning. 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 may also be used in a strictly personal sense, to refer to the period immediately following waking up, irrespective of the current time of day. In this sense, morning encompasses the (mostly menial) prerequisites for full productivity and life in public (i.e. cleaning, a morning meal -- often breakfast, dressing, etc). The boundaries of such morning periods are by necessity idiosyncratic, but they are typically considered to have ended on reaching a state of full readiness for the day's productive activity. This modern permutation of morning is due largely to the worldwide spread of electricity, and the concomitant independence from natural light sources (Why some of us are early risers. Retrieved on 2008-01-30.).

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 varied across cultures. Brunch is a late morning meal.

The ability of a person to wake up effectively in the morning can be defined by the length of their period three gene. This gene is hereditary and defines the persons ability to become completely alert and awake in the morning. People who carry the genetic pre-disposition of having a short period 3 gene generally find it harder to become fully awake, whereas people born with a longer period 3 gene find it much easier by comparison (Why some of us are early risers. Retrieved on 2008-01-30.).

[edit] References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.