Myth Category: True Origin

True — the “mare” in “nightmare” is not a horse. It is an Old English “mære,” a supernatural demon believed to sit on sleeping people’s chests and cause suffocating dreams. The creature appears across Germanic and Slavic folklore under names including “mara,” “Mahr,” and (in French) “cauchemar” (literally “trampling nightmare”). The equine “mare” (female horse) is a completely different word with a completely different origin.

The mead theory is substantially true. Richard Huloet’s 1552 English dictionary explicitly connects “honeymoon” to the custom of drinking mead (honey wine) for a full month after a wedding. The “honey” referred both to the sweetness of new love and to the honey used to ferment mead; the “moon” was a lunar month. Huloet’s entry also adds a wry observation: just as the moon wanes, so does the initial sweetness of marriage.