The Mythical Mead-Month

In olden days, a common practice was for newlyweds to drink mead (honey wine) for one month (one phase of the moon) to ensure the birth of a child. Thus the term honeymoon.

When I first read that I thought, "Wow, that's really interesting! I want to share this with other people."

This particular story of the origin of "honeymoon" is from a book on beekeeping. Other variations of this narrative have been circulating for over a hundred years.

In the various accounts, sometimes the practice of drinking mead for the first month of marriage originates out of a vague "olden days". Other times it's an ancient tradition from Babylon, Scandinavia, or Ireland. Sometimes both newlyweds are encouraged to drink the mead daily to promote fertility. Other times the mead is a gift from the bride's father to his new son-in-law.

Regardless of the historical accuracy of these traditions, there's no reason to believe that mead consumption has anything to do with the origin of the word honeymoon. As linguist Steven Pinker notes in The Stuff of Thought, tall tales like this can be debunked by consulting a dictionary, where scholars have traced the real origins of just about every English word.

The Oxford English Dictionary provides this etymology:

The allusion may at first have been to love which wanes steadily as the moon does, although if so a secondary interpretation as love which lasts no longer than a month ... soon arose, as indicated by the subsequent formation honey month.

The first known uses of "honeymoon" date back to 1546. it was used in the sense of "love which wanes" or "love which lasts no longer than a month." It wasn't until the late 1700s that it took on the meaning of a vacation taken by a newlywed couple immediately after their wedding. There's no mention of mead.

In his 2009 TEDx Talk, economist Tyler Cowen warns about how we're too easily seduced by stories and discusses the various ways they can lead us astray. He notes that in order to work, stories have to be:

• simple
• easily grasped
• easily told to others
• easily remembered

That someone coined a term about how love can wane like the moon is simple and easy to grasp. But it doesn't make for a good story. There isn't much there to tell to others.

Linking the term to an ancient marital ritual of drinking mead for a month adds that extra bit of spice to make it a story that can be told to others and remembered. Even when it shouldn't be.

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