small hours
noun phrase

- the early hours of the morning, between twelve o’clock at night and the time when the sun rises

Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary

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ORIGIN

The “small hours” (the period of time between midnight and daylight) are called small simply because of the smaller, single-digit hours on the clock that they represent (e.g. 1:00, 2:00 o’clock). For emphasis, it is sometimes expressed as “wee small hours” or “wee small hours of the morning” (wee means very small).

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BANK OF ITALY

Like a lot of folks in the San Francisco area, Amadeo Peter Giannini was thrown from his bed in the SMALL HOURS of April 18, 1906, when the Great Quake shook parts of the city to rubble.

He hurriedly dressed and hitched a team of horses to a borrowed wagon and headed into town—to the Bank of Italy, which he had founded two years earlier. Sifting through the ruins, he discreetly loaded $2 million in gold, coins and securities onto the wagon bed, covered the bank’s resources with a layer of vegetables and headed home…

Giannini quickly set up shop on the docks near San Francisco’s North Beach, with a wooden plank across two barrels for a desk.

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SYNONYMS

dark hours, early hours, hush of night, dead of night, middle of the night, midnight hours, SMALL HOURS, wee small hours

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SMUGGLE OWAD into a conversation today, say something like:

“I’m a bit tired today, last night’s bar conversation went on into THE SMALL HOURS.”

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THANKS to Steffie for suggesting today’s word!

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HERZLICHEN DANK to all readers helping me keep OWAD alive with single or monthly donations at:

https://donorbox.org/please-become-a-friend-of-owad-3

Paul Smith