eve

Meaning

1. The day or night before, usually used for holidays, such as Christmas Eve.
2. Evening, night.
3. The period of time when something is just about to happen or to be introduced

Synonyms

evening

🌆

eventide

day before

even

the night before

dusk

night

🌃

previous day

event

Christmas Eve

evetime

night before

nightfall

post meridiem

stay

vesper

afternoon

abidance

our first mother

evenfall

dawn

Pronounced as (IPA)

/iːv/

Etymology

From a variant of the Middle English noun even (itself from Old English ǣfen), with a pre-1200 loss of the terminal '-n', which was mistaken for an inflection. See also the now archaic or poetic even (“evening”), from the same source.
In medieval Europe, days were considered to extend from sunset to sunset rather than midnight to midnight, so the night before a holiday was considered part of it, hence its "eve".