seedtime

From Middle English seed tyme, from Old English sǣdtīma (“time for sowing, season”), from Proto-West Germanic *sādatīmō, from Proto-Germanic *sēdatīmô (“seedtime”), equivalent to seed +‎ time. Cognate with Icelandic sáðtími (“sowing time, seedtime”).

Compare also West Frisian siedtiid (“seedtime”), Dutch zaaitijd (“sowing time, seedtime”), German Saatzeit (“season for sowing seed”), Swedish såddtid (“sowing time, seedtime”), Faroese sáðtíð (“sowing time”), Old Norse sáðtíð (“April”, literally “seed time”).^[1]

• IPA^(key): /ˈsiːdˌtaɪm/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

seedtime (countable and uncountable, plural seedtimes)

1. The time to sow seeds.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

     Seed time and Harvest, Heat and hoary Frost
     Shall hold thir course

2. (figurative) A time for new development.

• seed-time