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etymology - Origin of the greeting "Sweet dreams".


Does anybody know the etymology of the phrase "sweet dreams"? I tried googling but did not find anything satisfying.


Is this a relatively new phrase of the modern world or has this been in use for some time? I think it's the latter one.



Answer



The OED has the interjection as "a farewell to someone going to bed" from the 20th century:



1908 Sears Roebuck Catal. 198/1 Tenor Solos..Good Bye, Sweet Dreams, Good Bye.



But it goes back until at least the 19th and possibly 18th centuries.


John Wolcot, writing under the pseudonym of Peter Pindar, used it in his poem "Orson and Ellen; A Legendary Tale" published in 1801:



I But I will go since tis thy wish My angel fair good night Sweet dreams to thee my only dear Aye dreams of rich delight Sweet dreams unto my friend also With sweetest smiles said site Ah then of ELLEn I must dream With gallantry said he



Also from 1801 in The infernal Quixote (Page 287) by Charles Lucas:



Poor Emily was like one thunderstruck Good night and sweet dreams to my lovely girl was the great mans address as he left the room INFEJJXAL QUIXOTE 287



In the March 1776 of The Universal Magazine was published "The Serenade. A Pastoral Tale. From the German of Gesner", where the shepherd Daphnis watches over his beloved as she sleeps and sings:



Lovely dreams conduct her to the grove where flowers are with the verdure nixed There let the little Loves pursue and play around her as bees about the new blown lose Let one of the lovely groupe settle at her feet loaded with a fragrant apple while another presents her with vermilion and transparent grapes and cithers agitate the flowers with their wings to diffuse about her the most sweet perfumes At the bottom of the grove let the Pa phian God appear but without his arrows or his quiver lest he alarm her timid inno tence Let him be alone adorned with all the charms of his inchanting youth Sweet dreams deign at last to present my image to her Let her fee me languishing at her feet incline my eyes and fay in faultering accents that for love of her I die Never O never yet have I dared to tell it her Ah at that dream may a sigh distend her bosom May she hen blush and smile upon me Why am not I as beautiful as Apollo when he guarded the flocks i Why are not my songs as melodi 122 THE



The same tale appears in 1776's as Idyl XI, "Daphnis" in New Idylles by Gessner translated by W. Hooper. Salomon Gessner was a Swiss painter and poet and first wrote "Daphnis" in 1754.


Dreams had been referred to as sweet much earlier, such as in Francis Bacon's Wisdom of the Ages in 1680 (originally from 1609 in Latin, "Done into English by Sir Arthur Gorges Kt."), and 1709 in The Works of Sir John Suckling: Containing His Poems, Letters and Plays.


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