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moonlight

/ˈmuːnlaɪt/ noun

In Latin: lūx Wiktionary

noun Definition from WordNet 3.1, Princeton University. Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about moonlight at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

  1. The light of the Moon.
    moonlight is the smuggler's enemy

verb

  1. Work a second job, usually after hours.
    The law student is moonlighting as a taxi driver

Origin

The noun is derived from Middle English moonelight, monelight, mone lyght (“light of the moon; (heraldry) pattern of moons on the field of a heraldic banner”), from mon, mone (“moon”) (from Old English mōna (“moon”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *mḗh₁n̥s (“moon; month”)) + light (“light”) (from Old English lēoht (“light”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *lewk- (“bright; to see; to shine”)). By surface analysis, moon + light. The verb is derived from the noun.

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)