Meaning
A period of gloom, hardship, and widespread dissatisfaction, most often political or economic, such as a season of strikes and unrest. In Shakespeare the wintry spell has already turned to glorious summer, though modern use usually borrows only the bleak half of the line. In the play the line announces that the bad times are over - users who mean misery at its peak are dropping the second half, which is standard modern practice. In British English Winter of Discontent is a fixed label for the 1978-79 strikes. Regional use: General English (Shakespearean allusion; the 1978-79 label is specifically British).
Origin
From Richard III, Act 1 Scene 1, the play's opening soliloquy, spoken by Richard, Duke of Gloucester: 'Now is the winter of our discontent / Made glorious summer by this sun of York.' The Phrase Finder dates the play 1594, with the first quarto following in 1597 spelling the pun 'sonne of Yorke' - a play on Edward IV, the son of York whose accession turned the family's hardship to summer. In context the line is unexpectedly cheerful, since it is Richard, excluded from the peace, who stays discontented. Dated modern history: John Steinbeck titled his last novel The Winter of Our Discontent (1961) from the line's opening words, and British newspapers seized on the phrase in September 1978 - Word Histories traces the earliest instances to the London Evening Standard of 8 September 1978 quoting the trade-union leader Tom Jackson, with the Birmingham Post headline of 12 September close behind - before the 1978-79 strikes made Winter of Discontent a fixed national label.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- made glorious summer by this sun of York
- now is the winter of our discontent
- winter of discontent
Usage Examples
- After three quarters of losses, the board dared to hope that the winter of our discontent was finally made glorious summer.
- Locals call the bus cuts the winter of our discontent, though a fare freeze may thaw relations before spring arrives.
- Every leader writer in 1979 reached for the winter of our discontent, usually without quoting its hopeful second line.