season

Etymology

From Middle English sesoun, seson (“time of the year”), from Old French seson, seison (“time of sowing, seeding”), from Latin satiōnem, accusative of satiō (“act of sowing, planting”) from satum, past participle of serere (“to sow, plant”) from Proto-Indo-European *seh₁- (“to sow, plant”). Akin to Old English sāwan (“to sow”), Old English sǣd (“seed”). Displaced native Middle English sele (“season”) (from Old English sǣl (“season, time, occasion”)), Middle English tide (“season, time of year”) (from Old English tīd (“time, period, yeartide, season”)).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈsiːzən/
• (General American) enPR: sēʹzən IPA^(key): /ˈsizən/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːzən

Noun

season (plural seasons)

1. Each of the four divisions of a year: spring, summer, autumn (fall) and winter

   Synonyms: yeartide, yeartime

   • Addison

     the several seasons of the year in their beauty

   • 1973, Jaques Brel (original version), Rod McKuen (lyrics), “Seasons in the Sun”, performed by Terry Jacks:

     We had joy, we had fun, we had seasons in the sun, / But the wine and the song, / like the seasons, have all gone.

2. A part of a year when something particular happens

   mating season

   the rainy season

   the football season

   • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 1, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:

     Then there came a reg'lar terror of a sou'wester same as you don't get one summer in a thousand, and blowed the shanty flat and ripped about half of the weir poles out of the sand. We spent consider'ble money getting 'em reset, and then a swordfish got into the pound and tore the nets all to slathers, right in the middle of the squiteague season.

3. (obsolete) That which gives relish; seasoning.
   • 1599, William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing, Act 4 Scene 1

     O! she is fallen

     Into a pit of ink, that the wide sea

     Hath drops too few to wash her clean again,

     And salt too little which may season give

     To her foul-tainted flesh.

   • 1605, Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Macbeth, III, 4

     You lack the season of all natures, sleep.

4. (cricket) The period over which a series of Test matches are played.
5. (Canada, US, broadcasting) A group of episodes of a television or radio program broadcast in regular intervals with a long break between each group, usually with one year between the beginning of each.

   Synonym: series (British English)

   The third season of “Friends” aired from 1996 to 1997.

6. (obsolete) An extended, undefined period of time.
   • 1656, John Owen, The Mortification of Sin

     So it is in a person when a breach hath been made upon his conscience, quiet, perhaps credit, by his lust, in some eruption of actual sin; — carefulness, indignation, desire, fear, revenge are all set on work about it and against it, and lust is quiet for a season, being run down before them; but when the hurry is over and the inquest is past, the thief appears again alive, and is as busy as ever at his work.

Verb

season (third-person singular simple present seasons, present participle seasoning, simple past and past participle seasoned)

1. (transitive) To flavour food with spices, herbs or salt.
2. (transitive) To make fit for any use by time or habit; to habituate; to accustom; to inure

   to season oneself to a climate

3. (transitive) Hence, to prepare by drying or hardening, or removal of natural juices

   The timber needs to be seasoned.

4. (intransitive) To become mature; to grow fit for use; to become adapted to a climate.
5. (intransitive) To become dry and hard, by the escape of the natural juices, or by being penetrated with other substance

   The wood has seasoned in the sun.

6. (obsolete) To copulate with; to impregnate.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Holland to this entry?)

Anagrams

• Easons, naoses, ossean