sundownern.
/ˈsʌnˌdaʊnə/, U.S. /ˈsənˌdaʊnər/ΚΠ
1846 C. P. Hodgson Reminisc. Austral. 303 This day's work is what is generally though not elegantly termed ‘eye-balling’, and its duration amounted in colonial phraseology, to a ‘Sundowner’, neither word is to be found I believe in an English dictionary, but both have very expressive meanings.
2. Australian and New Zealand colloquial. A tramp arriving at a sheep station, farm, etc., in the evening under the pretence of seeking work, so as to obtain food and shelter; esp. one who does this habitually or as a way of life. Also more generally: a tramp, a vagrant.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > aspects of travel > travel from place to place > [noun] > without fixed aim or wandering > vagrancy or vagabondage > vagabond or tramp
harlot?c1225
raikera1400
vacabond1404
vagrant1444
gangrela1450
briber?c1475
palliard1484
vagabondc1485
rogue1489
wavenger1493
hermit1495
gaberlunzie1508
knight of the field1508
loiterer1530
straggler1530
runagate1534
ruffler1535
hedge-creeper1548
Abraham man1567
cursitor1567
runner1567
walker1567
tinker1575
traveller1598
Tartar1602
stravagant1606
wagand1614
Circumcellion1623
meechera1625
hedge-bird1631
gaberlunzie man1649
tramp1664
stroller1681
jockey1685
bird of passage1717
randy1724
tramper1760
stalko1804
vagabondager1813
rintherout1814
piker1838
pikey1838
beachcomber1840
roadster1851
vagabondizer1860
roustabout1862
bum1864
migratory1866
potter1867
sundowner1868
vag1868
walkabout1872
transient1877
Murrumbidgee whaler1878
rouster1882
run-the-hedge1882
whaler1883
shaughraun1884
heather-cat1886
hobo1889
tussocker1889
gay cat1893
overlander1898
stake-man1899
stiff1899
bindle-stiff1900
dingbat1902
stew-bum1902
tired Tim (also Timothy)1906
skipper1925
Strandlooper1927
knight of the road1928
hobohemian1936
plain turkey1955
scrub turkey1955
derro1963
jakey1988
crusty1990
1868 Sydney Punch 14 Nov. 198 (heading) The song of the sundowner.
1870 Lictor (Sydney) 5 May 1 If anyone should doubt the distressed state of our laboring population..let him go into the country districts and note the numbers of unemployed who are wandering up and down seeking work, and living on charity, after allowing a fair per centage for ‘sundowners’.
1894 H. Nisbet Bush Girl's Romance 26 Never a tramp was turned away empty-handed unless he was a well-known sundowner.
1899 C. E. Douglas in J. Pascoe Mr. Explorer Douglas (1957) 278 Another time, a white cockatoo travelled down the Coast, visiting every hut on the beaches like an experienced sundowner.
1928 M. Forrest Reaping Roses 41 He wondered where these sundowners slept when they came to town.
2012 Australian (Nexis) 2 Jan. 10 Some old sundowners have a mania for gathering, from selectors' and shearers' huts, and dust-heaps, heartbreaking loads of rubbish which can never be of any possible use to them.
3. Originally U.S. Navy slang. An officer who exercises overly strict discipline and control over his crew; a martinet. Later also gen.: a disciplinarian.
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > warrior > soldier > leader or commander > officer or soldier of rank > [noun] > strict officer
martinet1718
sundowner1882
1882 J. W. Miller & C. H. Harlow 9′–51″ 22 Sundowner.—A nautical term applied by irreverent subordinates to a commanding officer, who, when the ship was anchored at Cherbourg, ‘desired to give them every opportunity to visit Paris, but they must be aboard every day by sundown.’
1921 National Geogr. Mag. June 621/2 One of the ships of the American battle fleet was once classed as a bad ship because her captain was a notorious sun-downer—which may mean that he was tyrannical and unfair and may only mean that he was disliked.
1952 N.Y. Times 23 Nov. (Book Review section) 1/1 The Old Navy had terms for such a man as he—sun-downer, hard case, shellback... He believed in keeping men and ships up to the mark: he preferred a taut ship to a happy one.
2000 T. Clancy Bear & Dragon lx. 989 He raised us pretty good, and it was pretty tough on him after Mom died. But he can be a real sundowner. Gets all pissy when he sees me drink a beer.
4. U.S. colloquial. A person who works outside normal hours in addition to his or her regular employment; spec. a publicly employed doctor who practises privately after office hours. Cf. sundown n. Compounds 2, moonlighter n. 3. Now rare.
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society > occupation and work > worker > workers according to conditions > [noun] > one who has more than one job
pluralist1794
sundowner1886
moonlighter1957
1886 Turf, Field & Farm 10 May 399/3 The night doctors gather the ‘stiffs’ and the ‘sundowners’ flourish around them with scalping knives.
1904 Sun (N.Y.) 14 Aug. 17 The Washington sundowner is so called because he practises a profession, usually medicine or dentistry, after the close of Government office hours, or after sundown.
1944 P. Kendall Dict. Service Slang (Army & Navy nurses slang) Sundowner, an M. D. in government employ who conducts a private practice after office hours.
1978 Washington Post (Nexis) 1 Oct. c1 The sundowners usually sell the fruits and vegetables of their labors in farmers' markets.
5.
a. An alcoholic drink taken at sunset or (more generally) in the early evening.Originally in British colonial use, esp. in Africa.
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the world > food and drink > drink > intoxicating liquor > [noun] > a drink of > taken at night > specific at sunset
sundowner1909
1909 Daily Chron. 20 Oct. 6/7 The ‘sundowner’ refreshment of the West African late afternoon.
1932 E. Waugh Black Mischief viii. 298 I said we'd drop into the Brethertons for a sundowner.
1947 W. S. Maugham Creatures of Circumstance 37 See you again at six for a sun-downer.
1978 G. Greene Human Factor ii. iv. 86 He sits there on a hot evening swilling his sundowners without a care in the world.
2010 Field Feb. 61/3 Discussing Kontela's technique over a sundowner that evening, Craig Hamman put some science to the art.
b. An evening cocktail party. Cf. sundowner party n. at Compounds.Chiefly in South and East African use, originally in colonial contexts.
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society > leisure > social event > social gathering > party > [noun] > drinking-party
potationa1500
symposium1711
wine-party1829
shout1854
wine1857
grog-fight1864
punch1871
grog1888
beer drink1895
cocktail party1903
cocktails1922
jollo1934
sherry party1936
shebeen1943
sundowner1944
wine and cheese (party, etc.)1961
kegger1966
sherry morning1976
the world > food and drink > drink > drinking > [noun] > drinking intoxicating liquor > drinking times > evening drinks party
sundowner1944
1944 ‘Twede in Bevel’ Piet Kolonel 105 It will always be memorable that Mr. and Mrs. Ferdie Ballot threw open the doors of their house and cellar to all the officers of the Battalion on the occasion of a sundowner.
1971 D. Creed Trial of Lobo Icheka xv. 149 I'll throw a Sundowner at your place tonight... Invite anyone you feel I might like to meet.
2016 Sunday Nation (Nairobi) (Nexis) 29 May We surgeons are often approached for free consultations at social occasions like sundowners, lunch and dinner parties.
6. Originally and chiefly U.S.
a. In plural. Symptoms, such as disorientation, agitation, delusions, etc., that occur or increase significantly towards the end of the day or during the night in a person suffering from dementia. Now usually (in plural or the genitive): = sundowner syndrome n. at Compounds.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > mental health > mental illness > degree or type of mental illness > [noun] > delusion > types of delusion
lycanthropy1584
cynanthropy1594
hob-thrush1658
wolf-madness1663
syphilomania1815
hippanthropy1847
zoanthropy1856
boanthropy1864
megalomania1885
plutomania1890
uranomania1890
micromania1892
delusions of grandeur1909
omnipotence1916
nihilism1927
apophenia1959
apophany1960
sundowner1974
sundowning1978
1974 R. J. Cadoret & L. J. King Psychiatry in Primary Care 227 Patients with organic brain syndrome often become more confused and develop delusions or hallucinations at night (so called ‘Sundowners’) and it is not unusual for families to report increased problems at night with such agitated, confused, hallucinating individuals.
1984 Aging & Senile Dementia (Pa. Dept. of Aging) vii. 7 The dementia patient will likely suffer from ‘sundowners’.
1991 Frontiers 12 136 ‘They all get sundowner's,’ says an aide. ‘Every night they lose it, and every morning some of them find it again.’
2001 N.Y. Times Mag. 14 Oct. 118/2 ‘Has he had any sundowners?’.. They were referring to that habit of walking, talking, howling all night—symptoms I had been reporting to John's doctor for several years.
2008 Daily Rec. (Baltimore) (Nexis) 19 Dec. People with Alzheimer's disease sometimes suffer from ‘sundowners’, a term for a sense of panic and confusion that grips them, often during the waning hours of the day.
2011 Bismarck (N. Dakota) Tribune (Nexis) 4 May 5 Up to 25 percent of all diagnosed Alzheimer's patients have been found to exhibit sundowner's as well.
b. A person suffering from sundowner syndrome.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > mental health > mental illness > degree or type of mental illness > [noun] > delusion > person
delusionist1845
sundowner1979
1979 Med. Econ. 24 Dec. 100/1 The most effective remedy is to have a relative spend the night with the patient... Failing that, the sundowner should be sedated at night by a little alcohol or by minor tranquilizers.
1999 NPR: Weekend All Things Considered (transcript of radio programme) (Nexis) 1 Aug. They're called sundowners because, as the sun goes down, their behavior becomes erratic.
2008 D. Kuhn & J. Verity Art Dementia Care iii. 38 Many other labels are even more dehumanizing, such as Wanderers, Feeders, Sundowners, and Screamers.
Compounds
sundowner party n. an evening cocktail party; cf. sense 5b.Originally in British colonial use; later used in some former British colonies, esp. in South and East Africa.
ΚΠ
1954 Times Lit. Suppl. 22 Oct. 669/3 The Civil servants and business men whose sundowner parties are the focus of their lives.
1973 Cape Argus 24 Feb. (Mag.) 2 Bearing in mind some rather tart remarks made at last night's sundowner party, he made the forthright statement: ‘Mrs Smith very bad.’
2003 Afr. News (Nexis) 6 Oct. The minister was speaking during the Tea Board of Kenya's (TBK) annual sundowner party at a Nairobi hotel.
sundowner syndrome n. (also sundowner's syndrome, sundowners syndrome, sundowners' syndrome and with capital initials.) originally and chiefly U.S. a syndrome in which a person suffering from dementia (typically Alzheimer's in the middle stages) exhibits a marked increase in symptoms, such as disorientation, agitation, delusions, etc., towards the end of the day or during the night.
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1975 W. B. Miller in C. P. Rosenbaum & J. E. Beebe Psychiatric Treatm. xxx. 477/1 The so-called sundowner syndrome, where a hospitalized patient seems to have clear mentation during the day but as soon as the sun goes down (i.e., when both physical and social stimulation decrease) develops confusion and becomes a management problem.
1984 Register (Orange County, Calif.) 4 July d4/6 These meetings serve another..purpose: Here..a wife can moan about her husband's Sundowner's syndrome, the constant pacing and crying that prevents her from sleeping at night.
1997 D. Meyers Client Teaching Guides Home Health Care (ed. 2) 80/1 (list) The caregiver can list signs and symptoms of dementia... Sundowners syndrome (confusion increases at night).
2014 M. H. Manasco Introd. Neurogenic Communication Disorders ix. 214/2 Also common is sundowner syndrome... Individuals..may present as only mildly impaired during the daytime but then their cognitive and emotional state changes for the worse at nighttime.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, January 2018; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1846