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Origin of matinee for an afternoon performance?
How did matinee become used for an afternoon entertainment? I heard one explanation years ago, but I can't find it or any other explanation. I won't post the one I heard because I want to see if someone will come up with it. In due time, I'll post the one I heard.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Neil Coffey on
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"matinée" apparently had a wider interpretation (which I'm not sure is common nowadays) of effectively meaning "not the evening". Littré in his dictionary (1863) gives the following note:
"De nos jours, dans les grandes villes surtout, on étend souvent la matinée jusqu'à l'heure du dîner, c'est-à-dire jusqu'à six ou sept heures du soir."
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EducatorPermalink Reply by George Hunt on
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This looks to me like an urban myth. If you look at actual evidence from historic dictionary definitions and usage, "matinée" appeats to have taken off as a term for 'afternoon/daytime performance', in both French and English, some time in the 1800s.
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EducatorPermalink Reply by George Hunt on -
A pity .It was a nice myth.
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Permalink Reply by Charles D on
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The Elizabethans did not perform twice a day, but performances were during the day and open to the sky--just like the Greeks and the Romans and the Medieval religious festival plays. When plays were performed indoors for Queen Liz and King Jim and in the rest of Europe, it was under flame (candles and torches). So "matinee" doesn't go back that far. Matinee, indeed, refers to day-time performance. It's not even in relation to the twice-a-day schedule existing now. On Broadway, for instance, many shows performed in the afternoon on Sundays are still referred to as "matinees" with no evening performance.
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