# Single word for a-day-and-a-night



## T4NK3R

I can't seem to find one anywhere - not even an Olde term, unknown to Google Translate.
The best candidate, so far, is "date" - but that's mostly about the written representation ?
- how to talk time without it: "He was stuck on the mountain for 12 days AND 11 nights" ?


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## sound shift

Yes, "He was stuck on the mountain for twelve days and eleven nights/twelve days and twelve nights/etc."


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## Andygc

A day can mean the period when it is light, as opposed to night being the period when it is dark. It can also mean a period of 24 hours. The meaning depends on the context you choose to provide.

"He was stuck on the mountain for 12 days" means "He was stuck on the mountain for 12 periods of 24 hours", although it isn't necessarily that precise. He could have got stuck at 3 pm and unstuck at 6 am, but we'd still call that 12 days. You only need to say "days and nights" if you have a particular reason for wanting to do so.


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## T4NK3R

But no single word (at all) ?


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## Loob

Welcome to the forums, T4NK3R!

As Andy says, the single word is "day".


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## AutumnOwl

In the Scandinavian languages there are two words, one for day = 24 hours, and one for day = the light period of the day, so it's a bit confusing to use the same word for both in English.


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## ain'ttranslationfun?

For the mountain, I can't think of anything other that "12 days", but for hotel stays, you'll often see (e.g.) "3 days and 2 nights".


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## MamStrach

The single word you're looking for is "Day," aka "natural day" (_dies naturalis_ in Latin) as opposed to "Day," aka "artificial day" (_dies artificialis_ in Latin) that denotes the period of time when the sun is above the horizon.


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## goldenband

There is a word, though it'll be utterly unfamiliar to most people (and was unfamiliar to me until I looked it up just now): *nychthemeron*.


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## djmc

Not a noun but an adjective circadian means taken over 24 hours as in "A study was made of circadian rhythms in shift workers".


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## heypresto

goldenband said:


> There is a word, though it'll be utterly unfamiliar to most people (and was unfamiliar to me until I looked it up just now): *nychthemeron*.



Great word. "He was stuck on the mountain for 12 nychthemerons" trips so trippingly on the tongue 

(I don't know if that's how it's pluralised.)


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## T4NK3R

It kind of "looks" german, but _<-----Unauthorized video clip removed by moderator (Florentia52)----->_

Cool goldenband. How did you find it - I've been looking for hours 
- but then I found this forum: How great it is to see, *the internet still exists* outside Facebook!


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## ain'ttranslationfun?

So would that be "circadian cycles", djmc?


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## djmc

In a word - yes.


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## Dale Texas

heypresto said:


> Great word. "He was stuck on the mountain for 12 nychthemerons" trips so trippingly on the tongue
> 
> (I don't know if that's how it's pluralised.)



Also, that sounds like it should be the term for a nighttime competition in the Olympic Games.


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## SwissPete

> (I don't know if that's how it's pluralised.)


*nychthemeron* ‎(_plural _*nychthemera *_or _*nychthemerons*)
*Source*.


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## perpend

I guess you could use "moons": For eleven very long moons, he was stuck on the mountain ...


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## Glenfarclas

perpend said:


> I guess you could use "moons"



No, that means a month.


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## perpend

Not always.  A "moon" gives a clear indication of a night having passed.


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## Glenfarclas

perpend said:


> Not always.  A "moon" gives a clear indication of a night having passed.



Right, and then about 27 more nights.


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## perpend

Well lunar specialists will disagree, but I was trying to address the OP, as to how to indicate that a night has passed. A night includes a moon.


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## Cagey

One definition of moon:

a lunar month, or, in general, a month.
_WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2015_​This would make it a poor choice if your intended meaning is a 24 hours including a day and a night.


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## perpend

That much is true, but how to render the difference between 12 days and 11 nights, with one word?


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## owlman5

If I needed to distinguish between days and nights in some reckoning of time, I'd use "nights" to talk about "nights": I met you three short nights ago.  However, "days" seems much more likely in this remark.  I'm hard-pressed to find a natural reason for using "nights" in that sentence.


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## perpend

I guess "overnight for 11 days" at this point.

And thus ... my exit.


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## velisarius

T4NK3R said:


> I can't seem to find one anywhere - not even an Olde term, unknown to Google Translate.
> The best candidate, so far, is "date" - but that's mostly about the written representation ?
> - how to talk time without it: "He was stuck on the mountain for 12 days AND 11 nights" ?



If there were a special word for a day and a night, how would that be of any use if you want to talk about "12 days and 11 nights"? You would have to say "11 [X] and one day", which is equally cumbersome. I feel you haven't given enough context to explain why you need this word and what the problem is. 

If there were an "old word unknown to Google Translate", nobody would understand it. Can you tell us what you are really looking for, and how and where you mean to use it?


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## AutumnOwl

velisarius said:


> If there were a special word for a day and a night, how would that be of any use if you want to talk about "12 days and 11 nights"? You would have to say "11 [X] and one day", which is equally cumbersome.


It could be "on the 12th [X] he was saved from the mountain".


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## Andygc

The answer to the original question is still that the "Single word for a-day-and-a-night" in English is "day". If he got stuck up the mountain at any time on 1 December and was saved from the mountain on the twelfth day that would normally mean that he was saved at some time on 12 December. If he was stuck up the mountain for 12 days he was rescued on 13 December. (Well, that's what they mean to me.)

There seems to be no good evidence that "nychthemeron" is ever used in a plural form. The citations in the OED only have the singular and likewise the Wiktionary entry. The OED does not have the form "nychthemera", which isn't a classical Greek ending anyway (nychthemeronta?). The lack of an irregular spelling suggests that, if a plural form exists, it's nychthemerons. A Google search finds that only in dictionaries. Nychthemera does almost as badly. There's a few examples in odd religious texts written by non-natives and there are lots of foreign language sites. "Hogna nychthemera" seems to have been a name given to a species of spider, but no longer an accepted name. But a pointless word to use anyway, since almost nobody would understand it.

"Circadian cycles" is fine as a joke, but it doesn't mean a period of 24 hours. "Circadian" refers to physiological events occurring approximately every 24 hours. The 24 hour periodicity is wholly dependent on the external trigger of normal daytime light and night darkness - so it would be "arse about face", as my father used to say, to call a 24 hour period a "circadian cycle" rather than a "day".


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## Copperknickers

Andygc said:


> The answer to the original question is still that the "Single word for a-day-and-a-night" in English is "day". If he got stuck up the mountain at any time on 1 December and was saved from the mountain on the twelfth day that would normally mean that he was saved at some time on 12 December. If he was stuck up the mountain for 12 days he was rescued on 13 December. (Well, that's what they mean to me.)
> 
> There seems to be no good evidence that "nychthemeron" is ever used in a plural form. The citations in the OED only have the singular and likewise the Wiktionary entry. The OED does not have the form "nychthemera", which isn't a classical Greek ending anyway (nychthemeronta?). The lack of an irregular spelling suggests that, if a plural form exists, it's nychthemerons. A Google search finds that only in dictionaries. Nychthemera does almost as badly. There's a few examples in odd religious texts written by non-natives and there are lots of foreign language sites. "Hogna nychthemera" seems to have been a name given to a species of spider, but no longer an accepted name. But a pointless word to use anyway, since almost nobody would understand it.



Just in case there are any James Joyce-esque writers using this forum as a reference, (since those are the only people who would have any possible reason to use it) the correct plural of 'nychthemeron' using a Greek style ending would indeed be 'nychthemera'.


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## Andygc

Copperknickers said:


> correct plural of 'nychthemeron' using a Greek style ending would indeed be 'nychthemera'


My apologies. It was a very long time ago that I did my Greek 'O'-level. You are, of course, correct and I shall collect my sackcloth and ashes on my way out of the door. Now, where did I leave my hat?


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## Packard

I rarely hear it (very rarely) but "diurnal course" means a full cycle of a day.  It is not one word and it will confuse more than it communicates, but that is the closest I can come to your requirement.


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## perpend

I have to give "diurnal" a like. Good call, Packard.


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## velisarius

"Diurnal" is an adjective (apart from certain exceptions that don't fit the present context). Nice try Packard, but it won't be much help  if the aim is to talk about the number of days someone was stuck up a mountain. 

I concur with what Andy says: _The answer to the original question is still that the "Single word for a-day-and-a-night" in English is "day"._


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## cando

Why not just say "a day and a night"? It's not a single word but it conveys the meaning clearly. It also has precedent as a set phrase type in English, especially in biblical narratives: e.g. "for three days and three nights" etc.


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## Loob

velisarius said:


> ... I concur with what Andy says: _The answer to the original question is still that the "Single word for a-day-and-a-night" in English is "day"._


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## T4NK3R

Why:
Because I often have to translate my software (from danish) - where we do have (and use) both "dag", "nat" and "døgn" (24 hours).
Precise and *short*. - in danish: "six days on the mountain" could mean 6 trips up and down - not even necessarily contiguous days.
- So it's a recurring nightmare to find room for 4-5 english words to replace a single (better) 4 letter one.

But it seems you anglos REALLY dont have, need or want one... weird


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## Loob

We _have_ one, T4NK3R - it's "day"**


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## Andygc

And it's only three letters.  if we spoke French it would be four, and if Italian, six.


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## Packard

_Days and nights_ always sounds a little biblical to me, but if you want to emphasize a continued state I think it is the most effective way to write it in American English.

Mathew 4:2 (King James version)

_And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungered._


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## cando

T4NK3R said:


> Why:
> Because I often have to translate my software (from danish) - where we do have (and use) both "dag", "nat" and "døgn" (24 hours).
> Precise and *short*. - in danish: "six days on the mountain" could mean 6 trips up and down - not even necessarily contiguous days.
> - So it's a recurring nightmare to find room for 4-5 english words to replace a single (better) 4 letter one.
> 
> But it seems you anglos REALLY dont have, need or want one... weird



Language doesn't work like code. There is quite often not a one to one correspondence between vocabularies in different languages. You have to learn to think differently and find the appropriate way to say something according to how a given language works. That can mean some restructuring of your thought and rephrasing your expression to capture the same intention. Actually, the same would be true of different computer languages. To get the same outcome in javascipt, Perl, php, etc., for example, you would need to use different syntax and different approaches to working out your coding.


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## cando

But we do have lots of words for different types of rain.


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## Glenfarclas

T4NK3R said:


> But it seems you anglos REALLY dont have, need or want one... weird



Yeah, and Spanish doesn't have separate words for stairs and a ladder -- and they don't want or need them either.  People get by, somehow.


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## ain'ttranslationfun?

Yes, "circadian cycles" is used to speak of animals, not a rotation of the earth, and "diurnal" is opposed to "nocturnal". Could we just say "From September 1st to September 13th", and let the reader do the math ?


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## Loob

This is getting silly....

A week has seven _*days*_. Not seven circadian cycles. Or seven other monstrosities. 
_*
Days*_


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## Packard

Loob said:


> This is getting silly....
> 
> A week has seven _*days*_. Not seven circadian cycles. Or seven other monstrosities.
> _*
> Days*_



I agree,* Daze.
*
T4 has to learn that different languages are different, not merely exchanging one word for another.

In this context:

"He was stuck on the mountain for 12 days AND 11 nights" ?

The nights are superfluous.  He was stuck there.  So if he spent a day, he also spent a night.

To express this I would write:

_*He was stuck on the mountain for 12 days, on the last day he made if off the mountain before nightfall.*_


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## elroy

I don't think the question in and of itself is silly, and I find some of the comments here patronizing toward T4NK3R.

I think this particular discussion may seem silly because I feel like the emphasis is not where it should be.  We should not be looking for a word that in English means "day-and-night," "a 24-hour-period," or "calendar day," but, if anything, a word that means "daytime only."

That's because the _default meaning_ of "day" in English is the former.

_A week has seven days. _(© Loob)
_I spent five days working on that project.
I visit her every day.
One day I would like to climb Mount Everest.
Let's spend the day together.
Let's move the party to another day.
_
In none of the above sentences is there an implication of "daytime as opposed to nighttime."  A week consists of seven 24-hour periods, I worked on the project throughout a period of 120 (24 x 5) hours, I visit her once every calendar day (it could be in the daytime or in the evening or at night...), I would like to climb Mount Everest on some calendar day (ditto), the invitation to "spend the day" together doesn't mean we have to stop when it gets dark, and the party could take place in the evening.

Similarly, when we ask "What time of day?", we are not excluding nighttime.

So this really only becomes an issue if we specifically have to refer to daytime, and although there may not be a single convenient way to do this in every context, we have ways of expressing the idea.

1.) _Would you like to meet during the day? 
_
(At least in American English, "during the day" means "in the daytime," just like "during the week" means "not on the weekend."  I'm not sure if "during the day" is used this way in other varieties of English.)

2.) _I don't like to work out in the daytime._

3.) _I spent all morning and afternoon working on the project._

4.) "Day" itself takes on this meaning when used in conjunction with "night":

_six days and five nights
I think of you day and night
_
As far as the context given here, it's no exception.  If "day" is used, it will be understood in its default meaning unless the context justifies the other interpretation (i.e. if "night" is used as well, as in "12 days and 11 nights").  If he went up to the mountain one time every day for twelve consecutive days and was there in the daytime only, and for some reason it was necessary to emphasize that he was there in the daytime only, then one could potentially say (depending on the context),

_He made twelve daytime trips in a row up to the mountain.
For twelve days, he would go to the mountain during the day and return to his hotel in the evening. _


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## ain'ttranslationfun?

As Bob Dylan sang ("The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest"); "...For seven days and seven nights, and on the eighth day he burst/Into the arms of Judas Priest, which was where he died of thirst."
Or as Harry Belafonte sang, "Day-o!"
For the bedazed guy on the mountain, I agree with Loob:


Loob said:


> This is getting silly...._*Days*_


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