Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An ancient Celtic feast celebrating the end of harvest and the beginning of winter, marked by bonfires and sacrifices and by the propitiation of gods who were believed to become visible and play tricks on their worshipers.
  • noun The period during which this feast was held, usually the evening of October 31 and the day of November 1.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun A holiday, falling on the night of the 31 of October to the 1 of November, celebrated by the ancient Celts and by modern neo-pagans as the beginning of winter and the new year, and a time during the spirits of the dead could return to the earth.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Irish Samhain, from Old Irish samain; see sem- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Irish, from Old Irish Samain ("Halloween"), from Proto-Celtic *samoni(o)s (compare Gaulish samoni-), either from Proto-Indo-European *sam 'together' (saman ("together"), Gothic 𐍃𐌰𐌼𐌰𐌽𐌰 (samana, "together, in common"), Sanskrit समन (samaná, "together"), सम् (sám, "with"), Avestan  (ha(m), "together")), or alternatively from Proto-Celtic *samo- (“summer”) (compare Old Irish sam ("summer"), Welsh haf ("summer")).

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word Samhain.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.