16. Looking at the ngrams of both, good night has a more frequent use. Goodnight has only appeared recently, suggesting that it has been introduced – but is correct to use. I would write"Goodnight, sweetheart" and"Have a good night". I also think that"goodnight" is just a shortened way of saying"have a good night". Share. Improve this answer.
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1. The origin of"at night" to indicate a point of time and the usage of prepositions"in" and"at". In olden times, when the time expression"at night" was originated, night might have been thought as a point of time in the day because there wasn't any activity going on and people were sleeping that time unlike daytime.
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Google"like night and day" and you'll see the option for idiom. completely different: On snooping disclosures, AT&T and Internet companies are like night and day. -pcworld Bar Sue and the London Plane Are Like Night and Day: Two Reviews -DC newspaper . Interestingly,"like night and day" gave me hits for many of the dictionaries you listed.
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5."Good night" as a greeting was once a feature found almost exclusively in Ireland. In James Joyce's"The Dead", for example, it is used both as greeting: —O, Mr Conroy, said Lily to Gabriel when she opened the door for him, Miss Kate and Miss Julia thought you were never coming. Good night, Mrs Conroy. And as a farewell:
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In conversation, the 'night' of which 'midnight' is in the middle, is considered the night of the date mentioned. If you are referring to a deadline, this also will refer to the stroke of 12 after the evening of the same date. Example: The paper is due by Friday at midnight. Should not be confusing to anyone.
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evening - starting vaguely around or after dinnertime, 5-8pm, and vaguely ending closer to bedtime, 7pm to 9pm. night - starting roughly 7pm and lasting till roughly 4am maybe 5am the next morning. Note that these are vaguely independent on the individual's meal and bedtime, but also independent of the time of year and latitude.
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@Mitch On a related note, the OED entry for “small hours” gives “the early hours after midnight denoted by the small numbers, one, two, etc.” Interestingly, the 1st citation is from Charles Dickens in 1836: “He invited friends home, who used to come at ten o'clock, and begin to get happy about the small hours.”
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21. Depends on context."Good night" is generally reserved as a replacement for"goodbye"."Good evening" is a form of"hello"."Good evening" has historically been a way of saying goodbye as well, but in modern usage both"good evening" and"good day" used as a goodbye is almost always a form of dismissal rather than a mere parting ...
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This could be the reason why we use"last" only with"night". But there might be some entirely different historical reason instead; it is impossible to say without textual research. We could theoretically use yesterday night as an alternative to last night; but it would be longer, which might be why it is never used. Or it could be some other ...
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'Night' is defined as:"The period of time between 'Evening' and 'Dawn'". People tend to get confused at the difference between the terms 'DAY' and 'DATE'. If it is Monday and it becomes 2 a.m., since the light of the sun is no longer visible in the sky then that is the 'Night-of-the-previous-day", so it is 'Monday-Night'.
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