- tonite (adv.)
- colloquial shortening of tonight, attested by 1918.
Present-day student notices on bulletin boards, etc., read oftener than not, "Party Friday Nite," "Meeting Tonite," "Kum Tonite," etc. [Louise Pound, Spelling-Manipulation and Present-Day Advertising, "Dialect Notes," 1923]
- tonite (n.)
- explosive used in blasting, 1881, from Latin tonare "to thunder" (see thunder (n.)) + -ite (2).
