Do you know the origin?

[Barnhart]

Definition 2 in OED2 adequately covers the sense of _civilized hour(s)_.
The first citation from OED2 is from 1654.  However, the earliest quote if
have found so far for "civilized hour" is from The New York Times (Aug. 4,
1929):

"The afternoon concerts begin at 6, the evening concerts at 10.  One has
dinner at the highly civilized hour of 1 A.M. or thereabout, after the
concert."

I suspect that there are examples out there from earlier dates.

Regards,
David K. Barnhart, Editor
The Barnhart DICTIONARY COMPANION
Lexik at highlands.com



American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> writes:
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>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       Pamela Medland <PMedland at VIRL.BC.CA>
>Subject:      Do you know the origin?
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Good afternoon.
>Does anyone know the origin of the phrase "the civilized hours?" This
>was submitted as a query to the National Library of Canada on behalf of
>a patron of my library, but the reference staff at NLC were unable to
>locate the source of the phrase. They suggested I post this query on the
>listserve. Please reply directly to me at pmedland at virl.bc.ca if you can
>assist.
>Thank you for your consideration,
>Pam Medland
>