nightertale

English

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English nyghtertale, alteration of Old Norse náttarþel.

Noun

nightertale (plural not attested)

1. (archaic) The period of night; nighttime.
   • 1867, Charles Knight, editor, The Pictoral Works of Shakspere: Histories — Volume II, George Routledge & Sons, pages 21–22:

     A person (as their books make her) raised up by power divine, only for succour to the French estate, then deeply in distress, in whom, for planting a credit the rather, first the company that towards the Dauphin did conduct her, through all dangerous, as held by the English, where she never was afore, all the way and by nightertale safely did she lead; […]

   • 1926, Arthur Mache, Notes and Queries, Spurr & Swift, page 14:

     All through the nightertale I longed for thee, […]

   • 1975, Georgette Heyer, My Lord John, Arrow Books, published 2011, →ISBN, page 44:

     And since Thomas of Gloucester was Arundel's friend, and only God and His Saints knew which way the redeless King would jump, the future was so dangerful that Edmund of York could neither relish his meat nor sleep sound at nightertale.

   • 2011, Arthur D Bardswell, The Poor Preachers: The Adventures of the First Lollards, WestBow Press, →ISBN, page 288:

     'Did I offend thee in my japishness, my son? Or did slumber forsake thee a nightertale last?'

Synonyms

• night, nighttide; see also Thesaurus:nighttime

References

• “nightertale”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Middle English

Noun

nightertale

1. Alternative form of nyghtertale